3-D Effects Double the Fun of “Journey”

Remakes and sequels are the norm in major Hollywood releases, with one of each hitting the multiplex screens last weekend to large box office grosses. “Hellboy 2,” a followup to the recent hit adaptation of the dark superhero comic book, just managed to beat out the second weekend of Will Smith’s satiric take on superheroes, “Hancock.”

Coming in a strong third was the debut of Brendan Fraser’s updated remake of the entertaining 1959 James Mason-Pat Boone fantasy film, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” itself a reworking of the classic novel by Jules Verne.

This new version of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is pure Saturday matinee Hollywood escapism, ideal for family viewing. While predictable, it’s reasonably entertaining for all ages, with a nice blend of characterization, plotting, action, and special visual effects. It also pares down the overlong 1959 plot (which ran nearly two and a quarter hours) to only three main characters who get through the story in a breezy hour and a half.

Brendan Fraser makes a fine serio-comic hero as an eccentric professor forced to take care of his sullen teenage nephew (nicely played by Josh Hutcherson). An unexpected development in his research has the pair rushing off to Iceland to investigate seismic signals that might shed light on the mysterious disappearance of the scientist who was Fraser’s brother and Hutcherson’s father. There they fortuitously meet another eccentric scientist’s beautiful daughter (pleasantly acted by Anita Briem) who agrees to be their guide, and the action-adventure part of the story gets underway.

There are no real surprises after an avalanche traps them in a cave and they decide to explore an abandoned mine shaft that ultimately leads them, chapter by chapter, to the fabled center of the earth from Jules Verne’s book. Fraser and Hutcherson develop reluctant but soon heartfelt mutual respect and family bonding during their ordeal, and of course Briem serves as the romantic tension as well as the local expert on the journey. State of the art computer graphics provide much of the environment, not to mention the realistic prehistoric creatures that imperil the group and a cutesy glowing bird that befriends them.

What really gives the film its impact is the expertly designed three-dimensional cinematography, a promotional gimmick that had its brief heyday some 55 years ago, a brief revival about 25 years ago, and is now seeing another revival, especially in computer-generated cartoons. “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is one of the few live-action films to use the process in recent years, and is an ideal vehicle for the process. The 3-D is often self-referentially clever (especially at the beginning of the film) but the illusion of depth is exploited to its fullest to serve the story, with things effectively popping out of the screen into the row in front of you and receding back well behind the wall of the theatre.

Without the 3-D, this film is an adequate juvenile adventure movie, but with the 3-D it becomes (literally at one point) a roller-coaster ride of spectacular eye candy. The mine car roller coaster sequence is merely a rehash of the “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” sequence, but the 3-D gives it another shot of adrenaline.

Every shot in the movie is as carefully composed in depth as a Viewmaster slide, and the exaggerated depth gives quite literally an “added dimension” to the film’s entertainment value. It’s almost as much fun listening to the audience response to the more outrageous 3-D effects as it is to watch them happening on (or apparently extending out of) the screen.