Mysterious Island

Makes not so thinly veiled references to the TV show LOST. It does so because it cannot stand on as a movie. It is like a high school play written by a child who only read the CliffsNotes. The 1961 version is better.

As I watched this amazingly stupid movie, and may I add, shame on me for watching it through the end, I noticed, when they where inside the house...there were candles every where...however if you look closely you'll notice light switches in every room, thermostat in one room. This movie was simply put "AWFUL"

I said recently that I considered the 2005 Patrick Stewart adaptation of Mysterious Island to be the worst Jules Verne adaptation and I'd like to firmly retract that statement.

This version starring Lochlyn Munro and Gina Holden is an absolute abomination for a couple of reasons. For a start it's because it's simply bad, it's ugly, it's unoriginal, for the most part it's laughably written and acted and a film you'll have forgotten within mere moments of the credits rolling.

The second reason is the worst, this is supposed to be an adaptation of Jules Verne's classic! Now other adaptations have gone on tangents, featured characters and oversized monsters that weren't in the original novel but this version takes that to a whole new level. In no way shape or form is this Mysterious Island! Here we have portals, we have time travel, we have an entirely new background story for Nemo and instead of giant monsters we have Morlock looking antagonists! I don't know what they were thinking here but it's 5% Verne's work and 95% original and moronic.

It's films like this that underline my issue with senseless remakes, if you aren't going to respect the source material then why even call it an adaptation?

A regular on the Scyfy channel this is one to not only not watch but actively avoid especially if you enjoy Verne's works.

The Good:

Gina Holden

The Bad:

Some of the alterations from the source material are beyond moronic

Stock sound effects

Cringe inducing script

Mark Sheppard is wasted

I don't know why everyone's being so hard on the script and actors for this movie. They're not that bad; it's just that they're so obviously hamstrung by the film's very limited budget. The movie looks as if it was shot on home video equipment (especially the night scenes) and the sound is pretty poor, too, in places.

The most egregious offense of this production is probably the costumes. A couple of the characters who are supposed to be Civil War soldiers are wearing what are clearly synthetic thermal undershirts that weren't seen on Earth before about 1980. Let alone 1880.

Do yourself a favor and rent the 1960s version.

This film has it all...bad writing, bad direction, bad acting, some of the worst CGI ever and an ending that basically was the director yelling, "CUT, we're out of time".