The best thing about Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is it took me to the bookcase to hunt for my copies of Jules Verne who, as we all know, has written these brilliant, seminal works of science fiction. Journey 2 is a sequel to the 2008 movie Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Brandon Frasier. Jules Verne did not write a sequel to “Centre of the Earth,” he did, however, write a sequel to “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, called “L'Île mystérieuse” (sounds lovely, doesn't it?) or “The Mysterious Island”.
In Journey 2 , there are a lot of classics thrown in from Robert Lewis Stevenson's “Treasure Island” to Jonathan Swift's “Gulliver's Travels” and obviously a whole lot of Verne — there are even people called Vernians, who presumably are people steeped in Verne lore.
The movie at 94 minutes proceeds at hectic speed, solving clues on the run to reach a happily ever after throwing in random angry dinos, tiny elephants (too cute) and giant bees apart from a volcano of gold, shifting tectonic plates, a sinking island, Captain Nemo, his submarine Nautilus and, of course, when all else fails, there is always the lost city of Atlantis.
Sean cannot get along with his stepfather Hank and sets off to find his grandfather on The Mysterious Island. Hank goes along, hoping to bond with the boy. They get to Palau where they hire Gabato's helicopter to get to the island. Gabato and his daughter are stranded with Hank and Sean on the island.
After all the things mentioned in the earlier paragraph happen, everything comes right in the end.
Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, really looks like one while Michael Caine as Grandpa Alexander Anderson looks like he could do these kinds of roles in his sleep and seems like he has done so. The 3D is passable and the thrills are incredibly predictable. If you sit through this film, you should wait for the credits because they along with the title are easily the cleverest part of the film.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Genre: Adventure
Director: Brad Peyton
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Kristin Davis
Storyline: A boy goes to find his grandfather on a mysterious island
Bottomline: Predictable, rather tiresome fun
