Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Considering that this is about as unrealistic as a movie can possibly be, I was surprised to find myself enjoying yet another ridiculous Brendan Frasier film. Journey to the Center of the Earth tells the story of a scientist, his nephew and a mountain guide who stumble upon the center of the Earth and all of its wonders in an attempt to discover what happened to his missing brother. The cast of this film is expectedly mediocre. I find it difficult to take Brendan Frasier serious in films like Crash, but much like in the Mummy franchise, his brand of cheese works perfectly in this film. He, much like everyone else in the picture, is not fantastic, but for what it is, they do a serviceable job. The movie does not attempt to recreate the Jules Verne classic or remake the movie. Instead it implies that what Verne originally wrote was true, and that everything he described in his writings was accurate. It is an interesting way of remaking a classic sci-fi film, and actually works pretty well. The movie has some very eye-catching special effects that really add to the experience, and while a lot of the movie is pretty ludicrous, I cannot imagine anyone calling it boring. Unfortunately, there are some parts of Journey to the Center of the Earth that are so unrealistic that it becomes kind of laughable, but if that is not the sort of thing that bothers you, I think you could enjoy this film. If you go in with the understanding from the beginning that traveling to the center of the Earth is impossible from the get go, you might actually have a good time. I would say the target audience is probably a young adolescent, and I can imagine at around twelve, I would have really liked this film. I watched without my wife; she would not have hated the movie, but it would not have done much for her. Someone who would have hated this movie is my dad; his love of the original would have produced nothing but loathing for this 'remake'. That said, I like the film enough to watch it once, and once was enough. I give Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 and a half stars.