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American Hyena gnaws on a screening of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and says its not really bad!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey folks, Harry here - caught the trailer for this in 3D before Zemeckis' BEOWULF - and frickin' hated it. It just looked bleeding awful. But the latest trailer seemed to have some fun stuff going on - and I'm past the stunned reaction to a spit into camera and the gag-robbing from the second BILL & TED outing... you know, the bogus journey? Well, here's some one that's seen the entire affair, albeit in 2D and has a take on the material that isn't wrenching, nor is it sugar-coated. He saw the film for what it seems to be - a film made for the junior set - that said - an accurate adaptation would have been fun for ALL AUDIENCES - rather than talking down to the munchkins. Why we feel the need to completely reinvent established great works of fiction... I'll never know...
So I saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D" in Thousand Oaks, CA last night. Another reviewer had a look at in August and re-reading his take it sounds like this version was a little further along. While we didn't screen it in 3-D, I didn't notice any effects that weren't finished and it seemed like all that was missing was the color/sound corrections.
The film itself is definitely one for the younger audiences (though the premise itself – essentially that Verne's book is actually an adaptation of the protagonist's adventures and therefore a kind of guidebook for the movie characters seems a bit since a bit removed for the elementary-to-middle-school set). But, with Josh Hutchinson and Brendan Frasier as your leads—there ya go.
Actually, that's probably not being terribly fair to Hutchinson, who turns in the best performance of the film. However, Frasier and Anita Briem (playing the guide/love interest) are on total cruise control, as are the three or four other actors that comprise the entirety of the films cast. The characterization here is totally stock stuff. Frasier's scientist can't let go of his vanished brother's work. Hutchinson's bratty nephew has no interest in his "dorky" uncle's work. Briem's character resents being associated with her father (a fellow "Verneian").
The film seems much longer than it actually is, largely due to the fact that they don't even reach the center of the planet until around the forty-five minute mark. Once they get there, it's pretty much one set-piece after another. And to be honest, if you're just in the mood for some pretty fun, you'll definitely find it. They discover a flock of bioluminescent Archaeopteryx that, as the other reviewer pointed out, look more like sparrows or canaries than what I seem to recall that species was supposed to look like. Regardless, they're fun to look at.
SPOILER ALERT
There's a fun scene involving carnivorous fish diving at our heroes as they try to cross a subterranean ocean and another involving a pathway of magnetically floating rocks. Of course there's also the obligatory T-Rex chase (disappointingly, he looks no where near as cool in the climax as he does during his brief appearance at the beginning). The actual means through which our intrepid heroes escape is ludicrous and insane to watch, but again very entertaining visually.
END SPOILER
So…is it worth it? If you've got a young'un or like 3D movies then I would say so. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of cheap 3-D effects and a couple are repeated ad nauseam (Hutchinson's yoyo and bird) but once the movie actually moves to the titular location, there were a lot of shots that I think will come across very well in 3-D. In general it's attractive enough to look at that it makes up for the weak characterization and mediocre dialogue (though there were definitely a few chuckle worthy moments that had the audience going).
I guess that's the most I can say about this flick. Nothing outstanding, nothing horrible, and so on and so forth.
--AMERICAN HYENA over and out.
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But it'd be nice to take the kiddies to see something halfway amusing for me as well.
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in other words, it's a shit movie but the 3D is good?
what a ringing endorsement. so much for getting 3D films out of their ghetto, huh?
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both in terms of 3-D movies and in Jules Verne adaptations.
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But with Brendan Frasier, how could it not be?
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Come'on guys, Count Floyd has been waiting a long time for that one to get the IMAX treatment. Let's step it up folks.
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Was all that kept running through my mind watching the trailer. Looks like they created an updated "Land of the Lost" and slapped some Verne references on it.
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I love 3D flicks when they're done right, and prefer the IMAX shutterglass format to the anaglyph red/blue glasses.
The cheap gimmick that hurts most 3D movies, and I wish directors would learn this, is stop trying to poke things out at the audience like yo-yos, pitchforks, spears, etc. The effect never works and always, always looks blurry. -
when it's just that they only see it in terms of a cash-cow. It always makes me laugh when you see execs like Jeffrey Katzenberg extolling the virtues of 3D as if they care about the art! Directors, sure, they get excited. But I sure Katzenberg talk about it at an industry event once and it was like "it's amazing, audiences will love it and come and see everything you put out"!
Do these people not remember the CG animation panic? Was it 05 or 06 when all of a sudden analysts and execs were saying audiences no longer wanted to see CG animations because a few in a row had tanked. But that wasn't the problem it was that unlike Pixar they thought just make a cartoon with CG animation and people will flock. Pixar knew that the story and characters had to come first, had to be good, had to be what drove attendance - not the format. Now 3D is quickly going the same way, instead of getting great films we're getting all these 3D films where the only good thing about them is the 3D. As these get more numerous audiences will quickly get over the "ooh, aah" factor and only go to films that look good as films, not due to there format and mark my words in 2010 or 2011 execs will panic that 3D is over, just because people pick their films more carefully again. I've seen lots of 3D on the new format, including the tests of Epsiode 4, Lord of the Rings etc (bring 'em on damn it) and i'm already bored with it. We need good films not crap films with a sheen. Hopefully Avatar will be great. In the meantime there's no way anything will get me into Journey 3-D. -
I'll wait for the good stuff.
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Anyone else heard about Stallone wanting to do a sequel to Cliffhanger called Cliffhanger 2: The Dam? I'd buy that for a dollar. They should do it in 3D. Ooooohhh...
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would that just be an entire film from the POV of a cock?
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Will it be filmed in Cinemascope? Ok, couldn't resist - you opened yourself up for that one.
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. . . w/ spikes and sails glued on, then it's a piss poor Verne adaptation. And don't tell me the duck isn't in it . . .
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on the other hand, maybe it'll get a few kids interested in reading Verne.
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Feb 19, 2008 9:22:35 AM CST
"Second Bill & Ted outing...you know, the bogus journey?"
by osmosis jones
MELVIN! [air-guitar riff]
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Seen the entire series so far. I really think its finding its stride. Looking forward to next week. What do you think is on the tape?
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why can't anyone adapt Vern correctly? Around the World in 80 Days with jackie Chan? Journey To The Center of the Earth with Brenden FraiserThis isn't rocket Sciene people, Verne lends his work ot some good stuff but they can't seem to get it right aggghhhIt's sad that the best Verne adaption we've gotten is the Eric Idle/Pierce Bronson Around the World from the 80s and even that played with a lot of liberities, replacing the Mormon stuff with..billy The Kid was it, or Jesse James
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Same with Fantastic Voyage. Also, in both scenarios you've got one dude constantly talking, explaining everything you see. No thanks.
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Now, that's a 3-D movie!
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I thought they were going to start making *REAL* 3D movies, where the movie didn't throw things at the audience and stuff. Disney's Meet the Robinsons, while aimed a bit young, was great for that - the movie didn't do any cheap 3D tricks and thus was the best 3D movie I've ever seen. Just film the movie in 3D, as if the screen is a 3D doorway to the set, and I'd be so happy.
Oh, and Grampageezer, this isn't "red-blue anaglyph" 3D. It's "Real-D", high quality polarized glasses along with a special silver-coated movie screen and a device that attaches to the digital projector switching the polarity of each frame many times per second. -
I hope that they don't screw up the lighting in this. Even as a kid I watched the classic screaming at the TV, where is the fucking light source!!!
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for this generation
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I suspect a plant under strict orders not to gush but push the "fun" aspect of the film and come across as neutral.
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It's been awhile since I watched the version with James Mason,but I think the light source in that one was from luminescent moss or ore in the walls.Thayer David (Rocky,Dark Shadows)was great as the villain.
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Pokes finger at camera.
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Fuck that! This'll be the biggest let down since those two Mars movie got made with no Barsoom!
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Feb 19, 2008 5:27:50 PM CST
This trailer was like someone taking a shit on me in 3D
by mattmanreturns
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I have a 4 year old boy, and he cannot wait for this. Nothing outstanding yet noting horrible is good enough for me.Where are the Vantage Point reviews!!!!!
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No plant, mate. Go back and read my review trashing Fred Clause a while back.
And look to be fair, a LOT of people are probably gonna hate it. My friend sitting next to me called it "atrocious" (though I think he was being a WEENSEY bit hard on it). But I admit that it doesn't take much to please me sometimes.
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wiki or google Shaver mystery, it;s about how nazis escaped in subterranean caverns from holes in the south pole which they disccovered during their ww2 arctic exploration and how they met with reptilian races which had addvanced anti-gravity technology stashed there.
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Not again. not AGAIN! when will we all learn? Seriously! God made Man so that he may destroy his greatset enemy: The Center of the Earth! It's high time we mounted a one world army to counter this vast threat! Amen
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that plays like all kids are absolute retards...when i was a kid, my dad took me to see fantastic voyage...now we are made to take our kids to banile shite
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right.
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