![]() It's a gag, sure, but one that bends credulity to the breaking point. ![]() Instead, he just tries to make it sound like the time he's been spending with Uncle Trevor is as dull and routine as they thought it would be. Not only does he take time out from fighting for his life to answer a phone call, he also neglects to say anything to his mother that a person on the verge of possible death might be inclined to say. Not only is this physically impossible-the film never even tries to explain how the phone could have gotten reception so far below the Earth's surface-but Sean's reaction is psychologically implausible, too. On the simply stupid side, there is a sequence in which the three adventurers are trapped on a raft in the middle of a storm and fighting off a swarm of giant, toothy fish.Suddenly, Sean's cell phone rings. Case in point: the way the characters react to the length of their fall. Whereas the novel had the characters hiking for months, the film uses this silly shortcut so that the adventure can be over within, oh, a week or so-but at least it has fun with the silliness. On the enjoyably stupid side, there is the scene where Trevor, Sean and Hannah stand on a fragile rock floor that suddenly shatters and sends them dropping, dropping, and dropping-until they reach a sort of natural waterslide that breaks their fall. At times, the script, written by Michael Weiss ( The Butterfly Effect 2), Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin ( Nim's Island), has an enjoyably stupid feel, but at other times, it is simply stupid, period. It's impossible to take any of the character development all that seriously, though, since the film as a whole is pretty dumb. And that's about it, apart from one or two faces that might seem familiar if you've watched the right TV shows. The film also stars Josh Hutcherson ( Bridge to Terabithia) as Trevor's 13-year-old nephew Sean, who comes along for the ride. Unlike Around the World in 80 Days, there are very few recognizable movie stars of any sort here: Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brendan Fraser ( The Mummy) as Trevor Anderson, a geologist who thinks he has found evidence of volcanic tubes that go much, much deeper below the surface of the Earth than most scientists believe is possible. The 3D process might be a staple of IMAX presentations and, increasingly, computer-animated cartoons, but it has not yet worn out its welcome in live-action movies released in regular theatres, so there is still something new and exciting about it-even when the movie that uses it is kind of old and stale. But Journey to the Center of the Earth does have one thing going for it, which is that it is being released in 3D in many theatres. Brendan Fraser as Trevor, Josh Hutcherson as Seanįour years later, Walden has returned to the well and remade another Jules Verne story that was previously adapted for the big screen in the 1950s-and the results this time are not much better, as far as the writing and directing go.
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