L'île mystérieuse

Did anyone else notice that Patrick Stewart was not actually on location in Thailand with the rest of the cast. All his scenes were in a studio or against a 'Blue' screen, even when appearing to be in scenes with other actors - probably the best Special Effect in this film. Perhaps he did not realise how bad the film really was as he was not really there.

Special effects reminded me of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), although not as realistic.

It's difficult to rate the film out of 10. If you take it as a serious film it rates very low, but if you think of it as a comedy then it could be rated quite highly.

I've always been an admirer of Jules Verne's novels. But this movie was certainly poorly produced. This movie has a completely different storyline from Jules Vernes novel. Like Jules Verne's novel, the film tells the story of a group of prisoners who have escaped from a Confederate prisoner of war camp during the American Civil War by a hot air balloon. They travel over the pacific and their balloon is wrecked on an island in the south Pacific, an island which is filled with mysterious secrets.

While Captain Nemo did appear in the novel of 'Mysterious Island' he didn't appear in the novel until the third quarter of the novel, while in this movie he reveals himself close to the beginning. Also there were no female characters in the novel of 'Mysterious Island' while this includes film a woman who works as a nurse at the Confederate prisoner of war camp and her teenage daughter who are among the escapees in the balloon and stranded on the island. But I suppose it does give a bit of interest to the film. While there were certainly cutthroat pirates in the novel of 'Mysterious Island' I don't recall any giant animals.

The giant creatures were certainly very terrifying in this movie. There was a giant praying mantis, giant scorpions, giant ants, and even a giant bird. These creatures certainly presented a great suspense throughout the film, the computer generated affects didn't look realistic at all. Not much fun I don't think.

This film certainly needed a lot more to make it interesting. It needed a better cast of actors for one thing, but most of all this film needed a better story-line, the story in this film is extremely dull, it's not like the story in the novel at all. Overall the only good thing about this movie was Patrick Stewart, he is such a brilliant actor! In fact he was the only reason I kept watching the film. So I have to admit this 'Mysterious Island' movie is extremely dull, I don't recommend it to anyone.

Don't waste your time with this. If I had known that this was a made for TV movie, with fade outs for commercials, and a "to be continued" pause in the middle of the DVD, I would not have rented it. It was a waste of 2 hrs & 45 minutes of my time. I do believe that the special effects were supposed to be cheesy, as if to imitate the 1961 original film. If that was the case, they didn't even match up to that and that movie is 45 years old for crying out loud! But go rent the original. It was much better. Even Jason and the Argonaut movies hands down had 100 times better effects than this movie. Patrick Stewart, one of my favorite actors of today and the main reason that I rented it, was fair at best. You could tell that he was just walking through this role and suffering along with the rest of us. And he sure was not at all interested in vying for an Oscar or Emmy. Yikes!! Oh, and did I mention that this was a totally useless movie? Stay away......a galaxy far, far away!

This has got to be one of the lousiest special-effects movies I've ever seen. It reminds me of B-grade '50s movies. It is unforgivable that the production was so lazy in this era of realistic CGI effects. The most atrocious part of the film was the attack in the cave of spiders. They looked like limited-animation cutouts. The poor effects throughout the film spoiled any experience of it.

Aerial shots were obviously filmed in front of a green screen. The balloon moved unrealistically against a backdrop of sky.

Time scale is wrong. How did these guys travel from the Eastern US to the Pacific in one night? It seemed they fitted out the limestone cave in a day and night, etc. Totally lazy effort.

How did top actors like Patrick Stewart and Vinnie Jones get roped into this mess? I love Stewart but this role forces him to sleep-walk. The best part of the movie was Jones' accent and attitude.

This new adaptation from Jules Verne novel starts on American Civil War , after the battle of Richmond . An Union POWs , an official named Cyrus (Kyle McLachlan) , Pencroff (Jason Durr) , an African-American soldier (Omar Gooding) , a mother (Gabrielle Anwar) and her daughter (Calvert) escape in an observation balloon and terminate stranded on a lonely South Pacific island . They must use their talents to survive dangers , facing off pirates (Vinnie Jones) and devise a way to return home . At the uncharted island find gigantic bugs and huge animals , such as large serpents , giant spiders , monstrous dragonfly , enormous rat , among them . Of course , they also encounter captain Nemo (Patrick Stewart) and his loyal helper Joseph (Roy Marsden) and his riveting submarine of the future called Nautilus . Furthermore , an unstable volcano on the edge of eruption .

This follow-up to ¨20.000 leagues under the sea¨ is an exciting fantasy-adventure full of special effects created by means of computer-generator . The runtime is overlong with several incidents and sub-plots , taking too much liberties from original novel . The cast is great but wasted , as weak performance by Patrick Stewart , unforgettable Star Trek's Piccard . Brilliant and shimmer cinematography , being filmed on location in an island of Thailand . The motion picture was middlingly directed by Russel Mulcahy.

Other versions based on this classic story are the following ones and filmed before : 1) Silent rendition made in 1929 , 2) Mysterious island directed by Cy Endfield (1961) , and starred by Michael Craig , Joan Greenwood and Herbert Lom as Nemo , with creatures designed by the master Ray Harryhausen , it's the best adaptation , and 3) European take on Mysterious island (1973) made by Juan Antonio Bardem with Omar Shariff as captain Nemo , Rik Battaglia , Gerard Tichy , among others.