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Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Journey to the Center of the Earth. Feature film. (2008, 9. mins) IMDB

...a fun ride and you'll wish you were there...

A

s expected and as it should, this film is a fun ride. Based on Jules Verne's novel of the same name, the story finds a professor, his nephew (13 years old) and an Icelandic guide (an attractive woman no less) travelling to the centre of the world where another world exists. A wondrous world with dinosaurs, florescent birds, tropical forests, oceans and rivers. Once in this world, they have to find a way out.

If you haven't read Jules Verne then you have missed some wonderful adventures--adventures based on real life and immense fantasy and imagination. Don't forget he was French.

In this film, there are a number of scenes where characters stand at an edge with a shear drop to who knows what below. It's a setup used many times in film and it always send tingles through my body. It's one ploy in movie making that gets me over and over again. It seems impossible for me to not be affected by it.

There is one incredible cool and interesting sequence. The young nephew, by himself, walks across boulders that float in space because of magnetism. Imagine stepping stones to cross a creek, but instead of a creek with water there's air and a large drop to the bottom. I'm not sure it could exist that way, but it doesn't matter. It was cool to watch.

The film I watched was a regular 2D film, but the filmmakers created a 3D version. I have no idea where 3D technology stands at the moment, but I know it comes and goes. Hitchcock, believe it or not, created a 3D film called DIAL M FOR MURDER. Quite a waste considering the talent gone into making the movie. It was a gimmick that faded and came back and faded and is now back again. In Hitchcock's movie, he created shots specifically to use the 3D effect--the scissors flashing out toward the camera and in this film, it's clear the filmmakers did the same thing.

Seth Meyers measures cabinets in a university lab with a metal tape measure. He turns with the tape extended out as long as his body and I'm sure in 3D it would appear that the tape was coming at you. The same with the yo-yo and all those monsters dashing out of the ocean or the T-rex snapping at our heroes.

I haven't flipped the DVD over to see what's required to watch it 3D but I suspect you need special glasses. In fact, I'd be amazed if that wasn't the case. I probably have a pair somewhere, but don't ask me to find them. It'd be easier to find Hoffa's body.

Posted 2009/04/16 at 18h22ET in Movie Commentary.

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