Customer Reviews

Journey to the Center of the Earth

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

I'm absolutely amazed at the overwhelming number of poor reviews this movie seems to have generated. I feel strongly that this movie has a lot going for it, but to truly appreciate it, you have to begin with one thing in mind: This is NOT the Jules Verne classic! This movie is not an attempt to re-create the original story (or even the classic movie starring James Mason), so if you purchase or rent this movie believing that is what you're going to find- forget it. It seems that the majority of reviewers are spending too much time trying to grade this movie against the original- their main dissapointment stemming from the fact that it is NOT the original. I believe, that if viewed as a stand-alone sci-fi miniseries, this has a lot going for it: A well-written story with interesting and well-balanced characters, stunning scenery and visual effects, a fine pacing, and interesting concepts. The "suarians" are very interesting creatures, and are visually stunning in execution. If the Krofft boys ever eventually get around to producing their "promised" LAND OF THE LOST movie, these creatures make a good basis for a more up-to-date Sleestak: fast, lethal, and deadly.

This movie is so bad. The orginal with Pat Boone and James Mason is so much better. I can't understand why it is not on DVD.

Why can't we get the James Mason - Pat Boone version?

...my expectations were low, I haven't seen the original or red the book - so I actually enjoyed this movie. It's not Lord Of The Rings, but the effects are actually rather good, it starts a little slow, but after 30 minutes or so it becomes rather entertaining - the acting could have been better, but the cast function ok for a tv-production - I really liked the "underworld-ocean", in my opinion it looks beautiful, and the blue forest as well - the green creatures are done very good - but if you are curious on this movie, don't expect too much from a tv-production like this one is, but if you like adventure and fantasy - you might enjoy it as I did. It's highly recommended fot those who like Hallmark-productions.

Journey to the Center of the Earth gets off to a goofy start, but manages to actually get pretty entertaining for fifty minutes as it chronicles the actual journey. The initial discovery of the underground world is awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, after those 50 minutes things manage to get absolutely horrendous. The effects look cheap, the acting is mostly amateurish, and the action scenes are sloppily made. Not to mention that the soundtrack sounds more appropriate for an episode of Beastmaster than a miniseries. Oh, and what's with the back of the box stating that this is 139 minutes long? The movie's actually 188 minutes long, nearly 50 minutes longer than it's stated! That just increases the torturous experience of watching this wretched cheese.

The achievements of animation in adapting this story in preceding years would continue to overshadow the resumption of live action versions in the 1980s and 1993. In early 1996, executive producer Robert Halmi, Sr., whose Hallmark Entertainment was simultaneously making a new version of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for CBS (which eventually formed the basis for a two-hour telefilm and a one-hour children's special the next year) announced a two-hour version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH for the Sci-Fi Channel, from a script by John Ireland. In the wake of the commercial success of the USA Network's four-hour mini-series of MOBY DICK (1998), the project was switched to USA, the Sci-Fi Channel's parent company, and the two-hour telefilm was expanded to four hours (including commercials) with Thomas Baum enlarging Ireland's script. Director George Miller, already attached to the project, was eager for the change, and produced with Connie Collins. Shooting began in April 1999 in Australia and New Zealand on a $12 million budget, and the miniseries premiered five months later on September 14 and 15.

The setting is given as 1868 and adapts the nationality and names of its protagonists to the cast. Instead of the German Professor Otto Lidenbrock, the hero is the American name-alike Theodore Lytton. As portrayed by 47-year-old Treat Williams, Lytton is as much an action hero as part of the world of science, thereby surmounting the unlikelihood of a man of his constitution suriving the expedition. He studied with Darwin in the Galapagos, and is a rather dominating father-figure to his initially fearful young nephew, Jonas, who is indispensable to his uncle for having a facility for languages that Lytton lacks.

Alice Hastings, a wealthy American mountaineer and member of the Carnegie family, hires Lytton to search for her husband, Casper. Casper had climbed down in a remote part of New Zealand, the Ruapehu caverns, that descend deep inside the Earth and are rumored to be an area of monsters and mystery. This new narrative strand is only one of several changes that incorporate aspects of another Verne novel, his 1867 epic, The Children of Captain Grant, much of which is set in Australia and New Zealand. Just as Mary Grant is part of the trek looking for her father, which will end in her marriage, Alice is part of the expedition in search of her husband, which will eventually bring her a new spouse.

Verne's phlegmatic Icelander Hans is replaced with the burly, kilt-wearing MacNiff. He integrates the Scotsman MacNabbs and the underhanded Ayrton from The Children of Captain Grant, and is wily enough to steer the Lytton party through the dangers of a colonial rebellion and hostile Maoris.

Unlike previous films of Journey to the Center of the Earth, the descent is in a tropical climate filled with vegetation. Wind blowing Alice's hair reveals a passage emerging on the shore of the underground sea, with the cavern roof supported by pillar-type columns of rocks, perhaps the most impressive visualization yet achieved. A shift of natural colors is used to convey an other-worldly impression, with a yellow sky and blue plants.

On the shore, Jonas glimpses and follows Ralna, a remarkably agile, tattooed redhead, who leads them into a jungle were they encounter two new races. There is a primitive but more physically developed humankind, together with a reptile race, Saurians, that has developed on a parallel path, with its own language, science, and urban centers in a world where human and dinosaur coexist. Alice is abducted by the Saurians, and in the human village Lytton, Jonas, and MacNiff find Casper, living as their ruler, in a manner reminiscent of a cult leader or Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

While the subterranean world is offered as an example of a different outcome of Darwin's theories, the theme is insufficiently explored, and the second half of the miniseries is disappointing, the filmmaker's refusing to allow the journey itself to serve as the goal, as in the novel.

Miller's version further demonstrates how films of Verne's novel and Conan Doyle's Lost World, itself inspired by the Frenchman's book, have become a source of shared inspiration for filmmakers. Conan Doyle's novel was even more concerned with the rivalry of races of prehistoric man than the better-remembered perils provided by dinosaurs. During the production of this version, two new films of The Lost World were made, one a pilot for a television series shot in New Zealand, so certainly the ideas from the Conan Doyle novel were very much "in the air."

Casper dies on the return journey, and crossing the underground sea again, Jonas, Lytton, and Alice are abruptly sent to the surface by a vortex phenomenon. Lytton and Alice decide to honeymoon in Iceland, and explore fresh caverns that may offer a more direct route to the center of the Earth (which has the curious effect of making the Verne novel seem like a sequel to this film adaptation).

Jonas must recover from an unknown virus transmitted by Ralna, that leaves him with dreams of her and causes him to return to New Zealand and a life of adventure--clearly leaving the way open for a sequel. The theme of Jonas's initiatory trajectory and his gradual emergence as a hero during the course of the journey remains from the novel, despite deviating from Verne's own romantic conclusion (which the Lytton-Alice nuptials render superfluous).

I don't understand why Fox or whomever owns the rights to the 1959 production of this Jules Vernes adventure has not realease it on DVD- the film was shot in spectacular cinemascope and must be seen letterboxed- Bernad Herrmans amazing score deserves the full stereo treatment- and the movie it self one of my all time favorites is a must for every science fiction- adventure- kid friendly collection

Both these movies have some family entertainment value. I'm not sure I would recommend you buy them unless you all ready have the original movies with these names. These newer versions probably had bigger budgets but they don't hold a candle to the classic 1959 version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with James Mason, Arlene Dahl, and Pat Boone and the 1963 version of "Jason and the Argonauts" with Todd Armstrong and Nancy Kovack.

Okay, this movie will definitely offend Verne purists, so if you are looking for a straight-from-text adaptation of the story, skip over this film. However, if you are like me, and have no other expectations for a made-for-tv-movie than it be enjoyable and the actors don't grate on your ears, check this movie out. I thought it was hilarious. The costumes and scenery are definitely out there and the whole story is a light-hearted fantasy. Plus, it's got two love plotlines (both with men pining for supposedly unattainable women). Sure, you know how it will end, and yes, it is not one of the most intelligent plots, but it's not boring or annoying! I thought it was sweet and humorous. Parents with kids, the special effects and dinosaurs will keep 'em entertained and you'll find it amusing enough to stay awake.

This movie was okay, but the original version of it was great! I would buy the original in a heartbeat if they ever release it on DVD.