'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island' Review (2012)
Not a piece of art, but the ten and under target audience should be satisfied
Photo: New Line Cinema
While it's implied this is a sequel to 2008's Journey to the Center of the Earth, the only returning cast member for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is Josh Hutcherson as Sean, a Jules Verne fanatic that believes Verne's stories weren't fantasy, but were in fact reality.
The cast includes Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Josh Hutcherson, Michael Caine, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Kristin Davis and Brad Peyton. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is a New Line Cinema release, directed by Brad Peyton and is rated PG for some adventure action, and brief mild language. The running time is 1 hour 34 minutes.
For those looking for any kind of continuation from the first film don't look too hard. Brendan Fraser, who played Sean's uncle in the first film and encouraged these Vernian adventures, is nowhere to be found. It's mildly implied he is just another male figure that disappeared from Sean's life, just as his father did, but implications is all we have to go by.
However, the lack of a male Sean can look up to soon becomes an ongoing plot point with the distance between Sean and his mother's new husband, ex-Navy man Hank (Dwayne Johnson), couldn't be wider. Fortunately, things move quite quickly as Sean has stumbled upon a message from his grandfather (Michael Caine) that originated from a location off the coast of Palau, a location where Sean believes they will find the mysterious island Verne wrote about in 1874.
As any reasonable person would, Hank up and buys a pair of tickets to Palau and our adventure begins. From there they hook up with a local helicopter tour guide (Luis Guzman) who takes them off into the wilds of the Pacific Ocean along with his daughter (Vanessa Hudgeons) wedged in there to ensure 13-year-old girls make a trip to the theater.
Bing, bang, boom, they crash land on the island, find Sean's grandfather, learn the island is about to sink back into the ocean and must find a way to get back to the mainland before that happens. Giant bees coupled with tiny elephants make for a wild landscape where massive lizards and electric eels prove to be major foes. Michael Caine yucks it up and Johnson wanders around rather stiffly when he isn't singing "What a Wonderful World" around the campfire… IN 3-D!!!!
As charismatic as Johnson is, he just can't sell himself in these kinds of roles. He comes off too rigid and the jokes that are written for him mostly miss by a mile. Of course, it's not like we look to him for his acting prowess. He is, after all, filling in for C-list actor Brendan Fraser, but this is the kind of film more suited for Fraser's talent. Johnson has more of a straight-man's humor while Fraser is more the goofball type.
To watch Johnson and Caine bat insults back-and-forth almost makes you wonder why Johnson doesn't just pummel Caine into the ground, whereas you can see Fraser taking one on the chin. Johnson's onscreen persona will never be as a lovable lug, he's a hulking, yet charismatic, force. He earns his laughs when he's embarrassing foes that otherwise believe they're tough, not when he's punching giant lizards in the face or bouncing berries off his pecs. He just doesn't fit in this environment.
As far as comedy goes, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island counts on Caine's silliness, which isn't in the least bit funny, and the one-liners delivered by Luis Guzman, who actually got me to chuckle a couple of times, particularly right before the group jumps on a swarm of giant bees to fly over a mountain and he looks at Johnson and asks, "Can we fly together?" Guzman has a delivery that can make you laugh, but it is a bit of a shocker to see where his career has gone since his supporting role in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic.
For the most part, this is intended to be an innocent 3-D spectacle. Loaded with CG landscapes, tons of intimidating monsters, crawly creatures and underwater adventure there is enough to keep the kiddies busy while parents can be satisfied knowing it's only 94 minutes long.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is hardly top notch entertainment, but as far as serving its purpose, I have a hard time coming down too hard on it. Most moviegoers will rightly stay away if it's not their cup of tea, but those that are drawn to it should come out satisfied.
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I don't know, the international weekend over weekend hold for this have been amazing, indicating it will get an excellent cinemascore.
Of course, I don't like stupid humor, either. But what about Dumb and Dumber, and the Jackass movies?
I'm not sure I understand. This is a review with my opinion of the film, not a box-office prediction.
I'm saying thank you for your opinion, but I don't want readers to believe your opinion is representative of most people who will see the film. People should look for critics who agree with their assessment of films if they want to be guided by those critics.
While the U.S. culture is not neccessarily the overseas culture, this film is getting terrific holds indicating much better than average word of mouth for the film.
I really don't see the problem with highlighting that your opinion on this film is the minority opinion, even among critics, in the U.S. And that it's highly likely your opinion represents an even smaller minority of filmgoers interested in this film overseas.
As harmless as it may seem, this horrendous movie handed me one of my worst movie going experiences ever….its traumatic, even for kids….trust me…i saw most of them in my screening getting bored to death with this trash….