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.

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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.