Journey to the Center of the Earth

Here we have yet another film adaptation of the popular Jules Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Here, the cast is led by Rick Schroeder as it again tells of explorers finding a passage into the core of the planet where dinosaurs, primitive people, and a whole lost world still exist. I am not that familiar with the novel or many of the movies based upon it, but this 2008 version is a poor adaptation. There were many things I had to complain about it and few to compliment about it. Performances were good, but just about everything else fell short of expectations.

The best part of the movie, believe it or not, was not while the characters were in the center of the Earth. Rather, it was while they were on the surface and even then, it wasn't that entertaining. I strongly felt the cinematography was too bright and gave the movie a feeling of schlock and no authenticity. The screenplay was rather poor, unorganized, and many scenes had little or no point. Such as this part where a bear allegedly attacks the characters and scares away the horses. We see the characters shooting, hear a bear growling, and that's all. Special effects weren't that great either. For dinosaurs, we see giant birds (not pterodactyls) and a plesiosaurus. Both were achieved with rather shoddy computer graphics. The creatures took up very little of the film and created no sense of marvel or majesty about themselves, which is what one wants to see in a movie like this. A lost world should be treated with majesty and magnificence.

Bottom line, the 2008 film adaptation of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was a very bland uninteresting film that took its time at developing itself and made very little sense. I suppose it is worth looking at once, but I'm in no itching hurry to view it a second time.

Really disappointed with the movie after all the hype about being a remake of Journey To The Center Of The Earth. I thought with all the modern technology in movie making, it would have a lot more flash than the original. But the original with Pat Boone is still the best. I watched this new movie until the end but after wards, I thought maybe this was part one since I was still waiting for them to get to the center of Earth!! Maybe this is the start of a series??? Anyways, on top of that, ION 38 kept popping up promos for their other shows at the bottom of the screen throughout the movie. That made the movie even worse.

Lighthearted romp for kids and teenagers based upon the Jules Verne book. An anthropologist named Jonathan Breck (Rick Schroder) and his niece (Steven Grayhm) undergo a hazardous voyage hired by Martha Dennison (Victoria Pratt) to find clues of her husband Edward (Peter Fonda) who disappeared five years earlier during an expedition to the center of the earth in Alaska (at the original novel is Iceland) recently bought to Russia. The trio along with a Russkie scout descend into deep caverns and discover a way leading to the planet's center. They have to deal with numerous risks, dangers, endure torrential floods, prehistoric animals and discover a forest with a lost tribe but not the lost city of Atlantis as happens in the classic novel.

This inferior adaptation is a special version of the Jules Verne adventure yarn . There're rip-roaring action, spirit of adventure, derring-do, thrills, but results to be quite boring. It's a brief fun with average special effects , passable set decoration , functional art direction and minimum use of computer generator. Acceptable cinematography, being filmed in Columbia British , Canada and atmospheric soundtrack . Highlights of the voyage includes a roller-coaster trip, a terrifying odyssey in sailing, with appearance of prehistoric reptile such as Plesiosaurius , Pterodactilus, and many others events. The film is produced in low budget by the usual Robert Halmi Sr. and Jr. who had formerly produced another version directed by George Miller , plus financed Jules Verne's 20.000 leagues under the sea(1997) directed by Michael Anderson. The motion picture is middling directed by T. J. Scott.

Other versions about this known story are the following : Classic adaptation (1959) by Henry Levin with James Mason as Lindenbrook, Pat Boone,Diane Baker and Arlene Dahl; Spanish version (1976)by Juan Piquer with Kenneth Moore , Jack Taylor, and TV adaptation by George Miller with Treat Williams, Jeremy London and Bryan Brown and another inferior television picture (2008)by David Jones with Greg Evigan and Dedee Pfeiffer. And of course, recent and successful take on filmed in 3D, produced and starred by Brendan Fraser with Anita Briem and Josh Hutcherson. Rating : Below average.

You never know what to expect from a title like this one.

I found the movie to be entertaining and acting very good.

Ricky Schroder does an admirable job with a script that needed some more development. I liked seeing him as an action hero and explorer. The special effects were quite well done. A family movie that the whole gang can enjoy. Peter Fonda is fun as an explorer who becomes a "God" within the earth. The story has nice plot points and satisfies its intended audience. The supporting cast does an all around good job. Scenery was beautiful and production values quite high. I think the wardrobe was quite well conceived and the props looked good as well. I give it a strong 7.

Yet again this adaptation of Jules Verne's classic has very little do with the source material and entirely goes off on a tangent!

Starring the always lovely Victoria Pratt, industry veteran Peter Fonda and a man I know only from the Whiskey Lullaby music video named Ricky Schroder.

It tells an entirely new tale with our party venturing to the center of the earth in search of someone and coming across a far smaller array of creatures, instead a lost civilization of "Natives". No Atlantis here, or for that matter much from Verne's tale.

With that Scyfy original feel and a weak script this simply isn't a very good movie, however credit has to be given in some areas.

For a start it looks great, it's some of the best cinematography I've seen lately and it does the movie a world of good. Though the film is low on creature effects the ones it does use are better than you'd expect due to clever use of shading, blurring and filters. What I'm trying to say is the sfx aren't great, but they've done a really good job hiding that fact.

Visually this version is a treat, for entertainment value it's more than slightly lacking.

The Good:

Some wonderful cinematography

Victoria Pratt

Beautiful settings

Time appropriate

The Bad:

Not exactly loyal to the source material

Rather dull