The Film
This latest adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth takes an unusual approach, acknowledging the original book as an inspiration for its characters. Following up on his late brother's research, a science professor embarks on an incredible adventure to locate the shortcut to a fantastic world far beneath the surface of our world. The neatness of the events and the seemingly indestructible nature of our heroes are a little hard to swallow, but the story is told briskly and with a lot of heart.
As the movie was shot with 3D exhibition in mind, there are more than a few gratuitous shots of items floating in midair or aimed deliberately at the camera, but it's all in good fun. According to Amazon, "Early shipments of Journey to the Center of the Earth were both 3-D and 2-D, but current copies are 2-D only." I was lucky enough to have one of these first-release copies, which includes the alternate version with the staggered red/green image along with four pairs of 3D glasses. We can switch between the two versions on the fly.
Check out Karen Dahlstrom's review of the movie here.
The Picture
The 1.85:1 video master is rather inconsistent. The movie was shot with state-of-the-art digital equipment and so it is generally clean, with no film grain but intermittent video noise. The image is also a little too bright for my taste, with an unpleasantly streaky, smeary video edge. Foreground objects are often razor-sharp while some backgrounds can appear unnaturally soft and flat. The range of exaggerated colors is interesting, although in certain scenes with a lot of special effects, the hues can get a little screwy. The CGI effects look CGI and do not integrate credibly with the live-action.
The 3D presentation begins with an introduction that explains optimal room conditions (no glare, low lights) and TV settings (Standard and not Cinema Mode, brightness cranked) and how to wear those green/magenta cardboard specs. The illusion kind of works, the picture appearing crisper and indeed with different levels of focus, an uncanny feeling of depth, although I lost much of the color that I saw in 2D. I watched both with and without my own eyeglasses on underneath, and squinting helped, but who can do that for an hour and a half straight?
Dolby Digital 5.1 on a major studio Blu-ray release? Really? The mix itself is fine in this active track, but the quality, the dynamics are limited. The soundstage is jolted by extreme weather and rockslides, the ground itself cracks beneath us and all around us, the rears tickled by drips of water and a flock of flitting birds. The subwoofer is put to good use, rendering the bass of seismic rumbling whenever the Earth shakes its groove thing, but I'm only left wondering how much more impressive this disc would have sounded with either Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio.
The Extras
Director Eric Brevig and star Brendan Fraser do more goofballing than informing on the commentary track, worth a listen for fans or for the extremely curious. "A World Within Our World" (ten minutes) explores various "hollow Earth" theories, "Being Josh" (six minutes) presents the video diary of young co-star Josh Hutcherson, while "How To Make Dino Drool" (three minutes) reveals the making of this one amusing effect. All are in high-definition. Disc Two carries a Digital Copy of the 2D movie for PC, iPod and portable Windows Media players, but where in the supplements are the detailed analysis of the 3D technology, the cameras, the Texas Instruments DLP projection for theaters?
Final Thoughts
With or without that third dimension, Journey to the Center of the Earth is good, goofy fun for the entire family--even my young daughters found plenty to enjoy--not intended to be taken too seriously. I'm surprised to find myself saying this, but I think it deserved better than the audio, video and extras on this disc.
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