Scientist Trevor Anderson is continuing studies from his missing brother Maxwell about mysteries pertaining to geologic conditions within the Earth. When Anderson’s sister-in-law, drops off his nephew Sean to stay with him, she also leaves with him some of Maxwell’s things, among those things, a copy of Jules Verne’s Journey to The Center Of The Earth and within that book, notes that say that Verne was onto something here, something true. So Trevor and Sean take a trip to Iceland to pursue this further, and with their Icelandic guide begin their own trip into the Earth.
That’s the opening premise of the film, and there are some nice ideas in the film, but it still needs a little fire in the belly. There’s hints at immediate threat here, but because of a bigger desire to make this more family friendly in all ways (and there’s nothing wrong with that per se), the threats aren’t as all played up as they could be. The film could’ve used something that would’ve been a little more sinister, maybe a fourth player in the film, just a little something extra to add some needed conflict.
It’s not horrible by any means, and the 3D aspect is without a doubt the reason to see it, if that’s your desire, though the 3D here isn’t say as good as it is in something like Beowulf it’s still not bad either, but they just don’t stretch the potential as far as they could. Like I say, this isn’t bad, but I could’ve done with this being a little more theme-park amped up, and that could’ve really helped more with the lack of conflict.
Brendan Frasier plays Anderson and he’s really rock steady here, absolutely solid as hell, and it’s just a shame that there wasn’t another actor that could’ve countered him more. The other two actors who play Sean and their guide Hannah, do a fine enough job, but there’s nothing that’s really making them stand out either, though I do have to give credit that the kid playing Sean could’ve been really played as more obnoxious as anything else and thankfully, the kid ain’t that…
But as others have said in other reviews, the reason to see this is for the 3D, and while it’s good (and for a live action film, probably better than anything else has been out there), it’s not as good as it has been in other computer generated efforts. The way I see it, if you’re interested enough to see this in 3D, it’s not a horrible time-waster by any means, but at the same time, if you miss it, you’re not missing too much either…
On the other hand though, if I was a little kid, I could see this thing being the coolest thing I’d ever seen…