Voyage au centre de la Terre

What a terrible waste of time! Boring story and tragically unbelievable special effects makes this TV movie just another TV movie for those, who are too lazy to go to the cinema.

Having watched it against my will i still feel like throwing away my time.

Ignore. 1/10

Of course many will argue that the original is always the best, and I'm not denying that it isn't. I just think this version on the Jules Verne classic was not that far behind the original.

However, the special effects could stand to be a bit better, I might just think that compared to "Jurassic Park", but I guess they had to stick to the TV film budget.

Most of the characters in the film were portrayed excellently. Treat Williams playing Theodore Lytton, brought across his character's feelings for Alice beautifully, whether concealing it or not. Jonas Lytton, Theodore's nephew was played by Jeremy London. Jonas was definitely my favourite character, he represented the heart and the youth in this film. His infatuation with Ralna(Petra Jared)was at times adorable. Petra Jared and Jeremy London had an incredible chemistry, some scenes were hilarious and some were romantic.

The plot in the film is followed mostly to the book. The film is not up there with the original, but what film is eg. The remake of "Psycho" was nowhere near as good as the original. However, this TV remake proves to be almost as good.

Plot

Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared.

Cast

Treat Williams and Jeremy London are a talented pair and make for some good casting. Bryan Brown, less so. Petra Yared however was a wonderful surprise.

Verdict

How many versions of this have there been? Ever since the original back in 1959 we seem to have had a fair few, varying budgets, varying quality. So where does this Hallmark version sit on the scale? Not great, not great at all.

Now to be clear I like Williams I think he's a great b-movie leading man and both the London twins have been in plenty of great films so I consider myself a fan. So here, they had the cast to pull this off.

What didn't they have? Well to start off I'd say the budget, they didn't have the budget. Some partys looked worse than the worst Scyfy original as far as CGI is concerned and some of the practical effects were Jason & the Argonauts level.

What else? Decent writing, a consistent supporting cast and something, anything to make it stand out from the those before it (In a good way).

Without all this we have an often ugly, poorly acted, unoriginal, tacky movie that for it's 3hr runtime is exhausting.

If you binge watch multiple adaptations expect this to be a low point.

Rants

I mean seriously that scene with the large creature that won't be elaborated on as this is a no spoiler review! The CGI there was, I mean truly next level and by next level I mean last level, I mean oldest level, I mean give a computer to a cave of neanderthal men and I'm confident they'd do better! Yikes, that was just embarassing.

The Good

Two leads are great as was Yared

The Bad

Brown is just obnoxious and unlikable in everything he's in.

Hugely ugly in places Some very weak writing Some even weaker acting with some of the supporting cast.

But I have to say, it takes a set of balls the size of ostrich eggs to make a movie and put a title on it that belongs to an entirely different story. Jules Verne is spinning in his grave on this one, believe me--this isn't even vaguely in line with the book. None of the characters even have the same name, fer crying' out loud! There's tribes of lizard men and humans living down there, AND THE HUMANS SPEAK English!!

I did find the movie entertaining however, my only real issue with it is blatantly stealing the name of one of the greatest science fiction fantasies ever written in history and dropping it on another story in the blatant interest of tricking people to come in and think that they're about to witness the real thing. For God's sake, they even credit Jules Verne!!! For what, writing the title? On the up side, the women are all beautiful, but on the other hand, the men don't look like any of them, at least the subterranean dwellers, have bathed in years. What IS that stuff on them, anyway, if not dirt.

I hear that they're remaking Plan 9 From Outer Space next year, and they're going to call it Gone With the Wind.

I went into this movie expecting crap, because it was made for TV, but I was pleasantly surprised. The acting was very good, with each actor seeming very comfortable in their characters. Treat Williams and Jeremy London worked very well as a uncle/nephew team, and Hugh Keays-Byrne delivered some serious laughs as Scottish gun smuggler-turned-guide McNiff. Bryan Brown portrays the film's antagonist with equal arrogance and intensity; very entertaining.

The problem is most people were expecting a good quality movie. The reality is, this was made for TV, and if you lower your expectations completely, it's actually a good movie.

The science is flawed, but so was Verne's, so no harm no foul. The special effects are bad, but like I said, it's made for TV. The scenery and locations are engaging and very cool. The caves are somewhat cheesy at times, but that's easily unnoticed if you pay attention to the characters. The action is visibly fake at times, especially the gunfire and fistfights, but not in a bad way.

All in all, the film contains very likable characters, genuine humor, and a very good soundtrack (another thing most reviews fail to mention). Just watch it in good humor and enjoy the story.