Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Posted May 23, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

After his brother went missing, Professor Trevor Anderson has been continuing the man’s work in order to find out what has happened with him. When one day his nephew Sean comes over to spend a couple of days, Trevor and Sean find a box with in there a book with references to the last journey of Trevor’s brother. Trevor and Sean decide to follow the references which lead them to Iceland where they meet the guide Hannah Ásgeirsson but when during their journey they have to hide from a thunderstorm in a cave. When the entrance collapses, they go further down and find a hole that leads them to a lost world in the center of the Earth.

Sound and Vision:
We get 2 versions, one being the normal 2D image and the second being a 3D version for which you need special glasses that come along with the DVD.

The 3D movie is nice with its special effects but the image quality remains a bit soft. The 2D version on the other hand is very sharp and contains a lot of detail. Really nothing to complain about when it comes to image quality but seeing that the movie doesn’t even last 90 minutes this doesn’t come as a surprise.

The 5.1 soundtrack does a nice job by using the surround channels aggressively whenever special effects come into play while dialogues remain clear and understandable at all times.

Extras:
– Audio Commentary
– A world in our world: different “hollow earth” theories about what’s beneath the earth’s surface
– Being Josh
– How to make a Dinosaur drool
– Game

Conclusion:
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D is a remake of the 1959 movie and based on the story by Jules Verne. You can have worse base material but one has to do something with it to make it a good movie and there’s where the problem starts. Although the special effects are nice (especially in 3D) the plot is thin as a hair, the dialogues rather superficial and plain boring, and the action seems to have come out of other movies and even theme park rides. There’s hardly anything original present and the obligatory romance between Brendan Fraser and guide Hannah Ásgeirsson (Anita Briem) has no sparkles what so ever.

All in all I’m pretty sure kids may still like the movie but people looking for more will be quite disappointed about the 2D version. At least when you’re watching in 3D you’ll have some creatures popping out of your screen…

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