I gotta read our front page more often. Apparently, Congress passed a law somewhere along the way that said that at least 25 percent of all wide-release movies must feature Brendan Fraser. Thus he’ll headline four this year.
And, as we all know, they also passed a law requiring 93 percent of all major films to have enough computer graphics to choke a tyrannosaurus rex. An amendment to that law, moreover, says that in the eventuality of Fraser being in a given movie, then that movie must therefore also have computer graphics, a law that I don’t think has been violated since “Gods and Monsters,” the 1998 movie which proved Fraser could act in a serious role.
But there’s a lot more money in obeying the law and churning out fluff, so check your brain at the door and hang on for the ride.
“Journey to the Center of the Earth” is (and isn’t) based on the 1864 Jules Verne novel of the same name, which was also the source for a 1959 movie starring James Mason, but wasn’t the source for a 1989 movie of the same name starring Emo Phillips. Got that?
OK, if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it would be that we won’t discuss Emo Phillips. And it has been decades since I’ve seen the James Mason version, though with him in it, it must have had its moments. As I recall, it was a pretty straight portrayal of Verne’s story. Well, this take on it is that a scientist named Trevor (Brendan Fraser) lost a vulcanologist brother years ago. The brother, Max, disappeared while exploring volcanoes. As the movie gets rolling, Trevor has his 13 year-old nephew, and Max’s son, Sean (Josh Hutcherson), staying with him. They discover strange notes Max had kept in an old copy of the Verne novel.
It seems that the notes are about Max finding a route through volcanic fissures into an air-pocket beneath the mantle of the earth, which remarkably preserves prehistoric plants and animals.
When conditions suddenly match those from when Max disappeared, Trevor decides he can’t pass up the chance to check it out. So he takes the boy with him. OK, now, it’s a summer adventure movie, so don’t go worrying about him taking the boy out of the country for questionable spelunking purposes without telling the mother. That would add extra run time to a very slicked out, tricked out plot flow, so it was chucked. Hannah (Anita Briem), the daughter of another vulcanologist who believed Verne’s book was a true report, serves as the obligatory feisty love interest.
They go to check out a pressure gauge Max left on a volcano in Iceland, but in the process end up sealed inside a cave when lightning collapses the entrance. Looking for another way out, they find themselves in an abandoned mine shaft. Of course, thanks to Section IV, Part 8, Paragraph 227 of the “Plotting in Action Movies” verbiage in the Summer Flick Act of 1981, this means that they have to end up on a roller coaster ride in mine cars, a law which hasn’t been invoked since the second Indiana Jones movie.
Just like in that movie, I have to wonder how the miners here would ever have gotten anything out of that twisted mess of branching, interweaving mine shafts. Whoops, sorry, started thinking. Bad critic! Bad critic! No popcorn for you!
Anyway, they keep falling down lower until they land in the center of the earth, finding evidence that Verne’s book was a report and not a novel, and also finding what became of Max, which, believe it or not, actually provokes a nice little scene between Fraser and Hutcherson, a likable lad who already has the acting chops to work up some convincing tears on command.
Meanwhile, our adventurers see some nifty sights, and there are lots of computer-animated special effects, many of which were designed for the 3-D effect used in the movie in selected theaters in major markets. (In other words, not here.) As expected, they nearly get killed right and left, but never quite do, even when a big, mean carnivorous dinosaur is after them. Or prehistoric giant piranhas. Or giant man-eating Venus flytraps. You get the idea.
What is clever is that the explorers carry a copy of Verne’s book. Though their adventures are sometimes based on the ones in the book, they are different enough to not literally follow it in plot or tone. Particularly fun is the “vehicle” they use for their final voyage.
In short, the acting is good enough to propel this amusement park ride of a movie forward. You can watch it with the kids and have fun, and not remember a bit of it within a couple of hours. The perfect disposable entertainment, just the way the Powers That Be want it: Empty entertainment to fill our heads at the height of summer so that we don’t do anything dangerous, like think.
Whoops, started thinking again. Hmm, I wonder if Sen. Phil Gramm was behind that movie law.
