Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 2012
I liked Journey to the Center of the Earth and despite worse reviews for this movie, I picked up the blu-ray when it showed up at Dollar Tree in 2024 (in Mexican packaging, but it played with menus and soundtrack in English). Instead of Brendan Fraser, this time they went with Dwayne Johnson, who plays the stepfather of Josh Hutcherson's character, the only person returning from the first movie. Like the first movie, it is based on Jules Verne's novel by accepting that Verne wrote about real events, giving the writers liberty to change as much as they want. There is actually a kind of clever concept that Gulliver's Island, the Mysterious Island, and Treasure Island are all actually the same place. That is pretty much the only clever thing in the movie. From there some terrible jokes, bad acting, really bad CGI, and completely bogus science take over. The plot is minimal as they go from one action scene to the next in order to get to the island, explore the island, and then try to get off of the island. Luis Guzman phones in another embarrassing performance. Michael Caine shows up and even he can't really put a shine on this. The movie was originally done in 3D, so there were a lot of obvious 3D scenes which were pointless in 2D.
Written: 04 Jul 2024