An absurd adventure
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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D (PG, 94
mins)
Family/Action/Drama/Comedy/Romance. Dwayne Johnson, Josh
Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzman, Michael Caine, Kristin
Davis. Director: Brad Peyton.
When the going gets tough, the tough get soppy in Journey 2: The
Mysterious Island, an old-fashioned, gung-ho adventure based
loosely on Jules Verne.
Father figures bond with spirited children, grown men cry and
screenwriters Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn shamelessly peddle cliches
as the narrative glue between impressively staged set pieces.
Directed with vim by Brad Peyton, this follow-up to the 2008
romp Journey To The Center Of The Earth continues the escapades of
plucky teenager Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson), who was handed a
book about Atlantis at the end of the first film, neatly sowing the
seeds of this slicker sequel.
Brendan Fraser is nowhere to be seen or verbally referenced in
this second instalment so professional wrestler-turned-action man
Dwayne Johnson gamely steps into the fray alongside Hutcherson,
plying his usual blend of brawn and self-effacing humour as the
plot splices Verne with Robert Louis Stevenson and Jonathan
Swift.
Sean has sprouted into a truculent 17-year-old with scant
respect for authority; not the local police nor his muscle-bound
stepfather, Hank (Johnson).
Following a brush with the law, Sean hides away in his room
where he hopes to break a coded distress signal emanating from the
South Pacific.
Navy vet Hank breaks the cipher, which confirms the existence of
the mysterious island from Verne's 1874 book.
Seeing the boy energised gives Hank an excellent idea: to
accompany Sean to the co-ordinates and pick up the pieces when
Vernian fantasy turns out to have no grounding in fact.
"Bond with him on some non-mysterious island like Hawaii,"
pleads Sean's spoilsport mother, Liz (Kristin Davis).
Unperturbed, Hank accompanies Sean to New Guinea, where they
charter a helicopter belonging to wise-cracking pilot Gabato (Luis
Guzman) and his sassy daughter, Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens).
The motley crew fly into the eye of a hurricane and are spewed
on to sandy shores where Sean's gung-ho grandfather Alexander
(Michael Caine) guides the newcomers through jungles teeming with
danger.
An imminent volcanic eruption threatens to plunge the landmass
into the churning waters.
"We need to get off this island or we'll be 20,000 leagues under
the sea!" barks Hank.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island unfolds at a cracking pace,
dispensing with characterisation to concentrate on
adrenaline-pumping thrills, including an airborne chase on giant
bees and an encounter with a fiercely protective mother lizard.
The cast embraces the preposterousness, no one with more winks
than Johnson and his "popping pecs".
Hutcherson and Hudgens conduct a sweet, chaste romance in the
lulls between each computer-generated storm, while Caine barely
breaks a sweat as the cantankerous old-timer with a twinkle in his
eye.
Before the main feature, gun-toting Elmer Fudd duels with his
feathered arch-nemesis in the cute animated short Daffy's Rhapsody,
also in eye-popping 3D.
As Elmer might say, it's gweat!
:: No swearing :: No sex :: Violence :: Rating: 6/10
To find local screenings for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D,
click here
Wednesday, February 01 2012
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