Journey to the Center of the Earth
starring Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem
screenplay by Michael D. Weiss and Jennifer Flackett
directed by Eric Brevig
Rating: ♦♦
Brendan Fraser released two films last year. The Mummy (Part 3) - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, with Jet Lee, was awful. I saw it in a movie theater in Canada in the summer time. After that, I looked forward to seeing Journey to the Centre of the Earth, based on the Jules Verne tale, which I hoped would be more in keeping with Fraser’s personality. Journey to the Center of the Earth was, indeed, so much better - by which I mean more entertaining - than the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Fraser plays a university Geography professor. He and his late brother specialized in plate tectonics and volcanism. But his brother - a devout Vernian, meaning one who took the writings of Jules Verne as fact, not fiction - disappeared ten years ago. When his sister-in-law brings his nephew for a visit, plus a box of his brother’s old belongings for him to keep as a memento, the opportunity suddenly arises to trace his brother’s last footsteps and solve the mystery of his disappearance. That leads Fraser, his nephew, with a sexy Icelandic mountain guide to the Center of the Earth. Wow! The Jules Verne novel is an excellent read, but the film is less so. Still, it is a nice diversion. You’ll like it, but not that other Mummy movie (the Mummy series is called “Hamunaptra” in Japan), that’s for sure.