 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: Believe the impossible. Discover the incredible. Related Movie: Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D In this follow-up to the hit Journey To The Center Of The Earth, 17 year old Sean (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island - a place of bizarre and dangerous life forms, deadly volcanoes and astonishing secrets! Unable to stop him, Sean's stepfather (Dwayne Johnson) joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever. Storyline: The 17-year-old Sean Anderson receives a coded signal and his stepfather Hank helps him to decipher the message. They find that Sean's grandfather Alexander Anderson has found the mysterious island in the Pacific described by Jules Verne and two other writers in their novels. The stubborn Sean wants to travel to the coordinates and Hank decides to buy the tickets and travel with the teenager to a small island nearby the location. They rent an old helicopter owned by the locals Gabato and his teenage daughter Kailani and the group heads to the unknown spot. Along their journey, they cross a hurricane and crash in the island. They find a beautiful and dangerous place, surrounded by forests, volcanoes with lava of gold and menacing life forms. The meet also the old Alexander and Hank discovers that the island is sinking. Now their only chance to survive is to find the legendary Nautilus. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, May 29, 2012 What's the best way to watch Journey 2: The Mysterious Island? With a room full of kids apparently. My wife and I looked after our dear friends' six children one evening last week; which, with our son, means we had seven, count 'em, seven kids, ages three to nine, clamoring for -- what else? -- a movie. It's tricky choosing a film that can entertain a three-year old (for as long as they're willing to stay in the room at least) and make a nine-year old feel as if he isn't being stuck with a kiddie flick. This wasn't the first time we've looked after this particular brood either, so we've had our fair share of failures and strike-outs. But director Brad Peyton's Journey 2? The much-improved, squeaky clean sequel to Eric Brevig's Journey to the Center of the Earth amps up the adventure, soars above the clouds and dives beneath the seas, trots out everything from pint-sized elephants to enormous lizards, cranks up the family friendly comedy, wholeheartedly embraces its 3D presentation, and delivers a harmless but harrowing ball of all-ages fun kids will devour. Brendan Frasier? Relieved of duty. Anita Briem? Nowhere to be found. Josh Hutcherson? No worries, little fans. Journey to the Center of the Earth's young Sean Anderson is alive and well, although quite a bit different from the last time we met him. Sean is a full-blown teen, struggling for independence, getting into trouble with the police, and itching to set out on a new adventure. He doesn't get along with his mother (Kristin Davis, stepping in for Jane Wheeler), he doesn't want anything to do with his stepfather Hank (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), and the only thing he seems interested in is a code he received in a transmission from his grandfather Alexander (Michael Caine), yet another Anderson-family adventurer. But the moment Sean gets a taste of the mysterious -- thanks to Hank's convenient code-breaking skills and even more convenient willingness to take Sean to the island of Palau where his grandfather's signal originated -- he ditches the angsty teen routine and becomes the same wide-eyed boy from the first film. His grandfather's island, as it turns out, is the same mysterious island Jules Verne wrote about in his late 19th century stories; a mystical island where big things become small and small things become giant man-eating beasts. Now, with the help of a squirrelly helicopter tour guide named Gabato (Luis Guzman), Gabato's daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) and, of course, grandpa Anderson himself, Sean and Hank set out across the mysterious island, determined to discover its secrets. If you were ever under the mistaken impression that slapstick was dead, look no further than Journey 2. Kids love a good trip, tumble and fall, and clumsy, whimpering scaredy cat Gabato is constantly dropping out of sight, sliding across the ground or plunging into the ooey, gooey center of an enormous egg. Comic relief has never been so endearing, though, and the man you might think would be the film's opportunist-turned-mega-villain is just another family man trying to make ends meet. There aren't any villains in the movie actually, and strained relationships are the only real threat to the Anderson adventure. Johnson is a welcome addition to the still-fledgling series too. Say what you will about his blinding grins, peck popping and cheesy one-liners, the man doesn't know the meaning of the term "phoning it in" and brings his A-game to every animal chase, deep-sea dive, and electric eel fight Peyton and screenwriters Mark and Brian Gunn toss at the screen. Hutcherson has developed into a decent young actor too, despite Sean's all-too-expected budding romance with Hudgens' Kailani, the usual boy/stepfather melodrama, and a wholly unnecessary third-act injury that yanks him out of the action. Caine, meanwhile, is the best of the bunch, going mano e mano with The Rock to amusing ends, bounding around the island like a man half his age (even with a cane in hand), and tying everything together with grandfatherly charm and sage wisdom. Hudgens is the only disappointment, reading her lines and landing her marks but never really connecting with anything around her, human or creature, practical or CG. Colorful and cartoony as Peyton's mysterious island may be, the sequel's CG creations boast commendable weight and presence, especially in the more distinctly 3D environments. Even when the actors climb aboard one of the island's creatures -- keep in mind mounted monsters have been responsible for some truly shoddy computer-generated visual effects over the years -- everything looks as if it belongs in the same world, without unsightly seams or disjointed elements. Journey 2 still fumbles a few bigger than life shots, and there isn't a minute that passes on the island where something isn't blue-screened, green-screened or clearly tinkered with in some fashion. But the high-flying adventure and jungle-scuttling action is full of wonder; bright, bouncy, kiddie wonder, sure, but wonder all the same. If anything, Journey 2 is a lightweight among family adventures. There's no sense of real peril, little doubt that everyone will make it off the island alive, and no moment of genuine drama or desperation. The seven kids sitting in my home theater the other night would certainly disagree, mind you. To them, Sean and his friends and family could perish at any moment, snatched out of the air by a bird or buried in rubble as the island began sinking beneath the waves. And that's the joy of watching Journey 2. As a family. With children caught up in the adventure unfolding on screen; bouncing in their seats, peeking through their fingers, and cheering wildly whenever Sean and his companions narrowly survive the impossible. There was a day and age when Peyton's Mysterious Island would have captured each of our imaginations, sent us scurrying to our playrooms riding invisible bees and exploring ancient cities, and left us dreaming of islands unknown and adventures to be had. So the next time you scoff at a film like Journey 2, try watching it with your little would-be adventurer or adventurers at your side and see just how long it takes you to uncross your arms. See how long it takes you to allow a smile to creep across your face. See how long it takes before you start enjoying yourself. My guess is it won't take long at all. There aren't many 3D releases that outwit, outlast and outplay their 2D counterparts, but Journey 2 3D nudges past its 2D cousin with an engrossing 3D experience that actually makes for a slightly better movie. Regardless of which version you choose, though, you can count on a high-quality video presentation, a fantastic DTS-HD Master Audio track, and a small smattering of supplements kids will gobble up. More extras would have been welcome -- a fuller, more robust Explore the Island feature perhaps -- but parents really can't go wrong with this one. Funny, exciting and perfectly family friendly, Peyton's Mysterious Island will leave kids begging to return to its shores again and again. Trivia: The books for the map in this movie were:
This movie was only shot for the raw action sequences and the 3D effects. Some of the notable D-Box and 3D effects are:
[CSW] -3.6- The best way to watch Journey 2: is with a room full of kids. It's tricky finding a film that can entertain a three-year old (for as long as they're willing to stay in the room at least) and make a nine-year old feel as if he isn't being stuck with a kiddie flick. The much-improved, squeaky clean sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth amps up the adventure, soars above the clouds and dives beneath the seas, trots out everything from pint-sized elephants to enormous lizards, cranks up the family friendly comedy, wholeheartedly embraces its 3D presentation, and delivers a harmless but harrowing ball of fun that kids of all-ages will devour. I must be a kid at heart because I'm finding that the movie industry had found a way to pry loose my wallet for these leave-your-mind-turned-off 3D movies. I rented the 2D version of this film to help me decide if I want to get the 3D version for my 3D enabled home theater. Well I will be adding the 3D Blu-ray version of this film to my library. I find that I am becoming a sucker for these very enjoyable rainy Saturday afternoon popcorn movies in 3D, but I'm not sure how strongly I can recommend the 2D version (except possibly for the little ones) because these movies were specifically designed for the raw action sequences with their full 3D effects. [V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 8.1/10 - Good but muted for children. Cast Notes: Dwayne Johnson (Hank), Michael Caine (Alexander), Josh Hutcherson (Sean) [of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D], Luis Guzmán (Gabato), Vanessa Hudgens (Kailani), Kristin Davis (Liz), Anna Colwell (Jessica), Stephen Caudill (Cop), Branscombe Richmond (Tour Guide), Walter Bankson (Hockey Player), Michael Beasley (Marcus). IMDb Rating (05/30/12): 5.8/10 from 14,270 users IMDb Rating (04/15/12): 6.0/10 from 8,273 users
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