Journey to the Center of the Earth If Journey to the Center of the Earth had come out when I was eight, I would have jumped up and down saying "Can we go? Can we go?" at my parents side till they dropped me off at the local Santa Rosa to see it. The Santa Rosa was the local theater where I saw such important movies such as Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster and Destroy All Monsters. I would like to think I have matured a bit in my taste in films since then. When I saw that the Journey to the Center of the Earth was in 3-D, I calmly started to jump up and down and yell "Can we go? Can we go?".
I really love 3-D movies, View-Masters, or just about anything to do with 3-D (may I remind you that most of you experience your life in 3-D, apologizes to the 2-D or 1-D people, you know who you are). Please don't even think about seeing this in a non 3-D version. Journey to the Center of the Earth was designed from the ground up as a 3-D movie. Do you want a T-rex to dribble on you? Do you want Brendan Fraser to spit out his tooth paste on you? Do you want gnarly fishes with big vicious teeth to jump at you? Then go see the 3-D version of this movie. The little girl that sat next to me while I was watching this kept reaching for the movie screen throughout the movie. I saw The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) in 3-D a couple of months ago, but the 3-D we have now is not your daddy's 3-D (as David Cross would say). If you haven't seen a recent 3-D movie, you are missing out. I got excited at the Real D logo which appears in 3-D before the movie even starts (I was bummed that there were no 3-D trailers though). Is this a sign I need to get out more?
 We have had a couple of 3-D animated movies and two 3-D concert movies, but this is the first recent more typical type of live action 3-D movie, and it works well. This is the movie that the phrase "rollercoaster ride" was made for. This is not a deep movie. It is basically one action sequence after another, and Brendan Fraser earns his pay in this movie. The movie does not have a huge cast, Josh Hutcherson (from Bridge to Terabithia) and Anita Briem as their guide/lost interest are solid enough if not exciting. Watching Journey to the Center of the Earth, made me wish they had pushed back King Kong a couple of years and made it in 3-D. There are several 3-D jokes throughout the movie, which is not above poking a bit of fun at itself. The movie is short. There is a subplot about a missing dad/brother that could have been cut out without any harm to the movie. It just slows the movie down and comes off as a bit manipulative. Otherwise this movie is pretty harmless; the graphics are good though predictable. The movie will be over before you have any time to really think about it. Is that such a bad thing?
You can write to James Harper at movielover77061@yahoo.com |
