Journey 2 The Mysterious Island, Its a Rental

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, is definitely a rental, please do not go out and spend all that hard earned
cash to see this movie, especially in Real 3D because you will be disappointed. The movie is a linear narrative that is heavily plot driven and lacks depth, emotional investment, and the characters (although in a fictional reality) seem like two dimensional card board cut-outs, and I am a fan of the talented cast, but I spent my time waiting for the talent to blossom, but to no avail.

 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can act, but the story was too confined and the characters had no real room to grow, rather, the character arc seemed really forced. The movie has its good qualities, for example, the background rendering of the production design as well as the special effects are amazing, especially, during the sequence when they find the lost city of Atlantis. Kirsten Davis makes an appearance (and I say appearance because her role in the movie is really small. She is there two times within the entire narrative.), she plays the main character’s mother and she plays a minute role as far as the character’s exposition. I give this film a C- grade because if it was not for the beautiful rendering and the fact that the filmmakers are trying to convey the wonderful imagination of Jules Verne, then I would probably have failed the flick.

The movie is about a snot-nosed affluent brat Sean (Josh Hutcherson) that gets his way (even breaks the law) because his bio-dad has left him and he is in search of his grandfather who has disappeared for well over two years. Hank (Dwayne Johnson), Sean’s stepfather, is an ex-Navy serviceman who bails Sean out at every turn to please his mother, and the boy seems to be enamored by the works of Jules Verne, and the grandfather sends him a Morse coded message that causes Hank to solve it after grounding his stepson, but all Hank wants to do is to bond with this rebellious spoiled brat. After solving the secret message, Hank and Sean rip up three important literal classics to create a map and to gain the coordinates for the mysterious island. Hank asks his wife Liz (Kirsten Davis) for permission to take Sean for this imaginative expedition as a bonding experiment, and with her acceptance, they are off to an island in the south pacific where they meet (the ever so comical)Gabato (Luis Guzman) and his daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens). The four head up to the Mysterious Island in an old dilapidated helicopter where a nasty hurricane swallows them up and spits them out on the island’s shore. The four ventures in and they meet a nasty lizard with a bad attitude to match and the infamous grandfather Alexander (Michael Caine) saves them with his arrogance and wisdom.

The children will enjoy the action sequences, and the comedic elements do not disappoint, but the price of the ticket versus the level of entertainment will, and when the books are a hundred times more fascinating than couple hours of movie, then I suggest that you should save the money order the Kindle versions of the story (since they are free) or wait for this subpar flick to hit Netflix, or the rental shelves of your trusty local place of rentals. Save yourself the time, money and gas. No thanks to this great economy of ours. Till next time, I hope to catch you at the movies. ;)

Please, if you were one of the many that have seen this movie and you would like to vent your frustrations or just add to the ones that I laid out, then leave your comments and concerns? Let me know if you dissagree with my analysis? How do you feel abnout this production? Did you spend that outrageous amount of money just to be extremely disappointed? Do you like Jules Verne?