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Journey To The Center Of The Earth DVD Review Director: Eric Brevig Starring: Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem Screenplay: Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin Director of Photography: Chuck Shuman By Don Young Jules Verne wrote “A Journey into the Interior of the Earth” in 1864, and it was translated and rewritten in English as “A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.” Several times it has been used as a basis for movies, at least once every decade. This year we get two versions, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” on TV in a traditional version and the theatre version, rewritten to bring the story up-to-date. This review will cover the DVD of the theatrical version. The movie begins quickly with a fossil on the ground. A Trilobite walks by and stops and looks back. It scurries off the screen, followed by a man running, chased by a dinosaur. He trips, but gets up and continues running as the earth opens up ahead of him. He tries to jump across the fissure, but cannot hold on and falls into the abyss. The scene jumps to Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) waking from a nightmare. Beside him is a picture of Trevor with the man (Max, his brother) seen in the earlier scene. Trevor still wears the same T-shirt he had on in the picture; we soon find it was over ten years ago. He brushes his teeth, gargles and leaves on his bicycle. At the university, he teaches a small class of disinterested students. Next he goes to the lab, named after his brother, and is told it will soon be shut down. The scene shifts to Trevor at home, realizing that he has not prepared for the arrival of his nephew. Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson), the nephew arrives, with an attitude much like the students. Trevor will keep him for ten days. He also receives a box of his brother’s things, which includes a copy of “A Journey To The Center Of The Earth.” In it are notes that relate back to Trevor’s work, which should not be surprising, since it was Max that started the lab Trevor works in. Max installed the sensors being monitored, so why wouldn’t they be in his notes in his favourite novel? Trevor rushes out to the lab and checks his data sheet. The data recorded from 3 locations is almost the same as it was in July 1997, the year when Max went missing. When it matches exactly, Trevor decides it means something important. But what? A fourth signal is received from Iceland, and Trevor rushes home to prepare a trip to Iceland. This is expressed as the same thing his brother did ten years before. This brings us to the ten-minute point in the film. Have the characters and the story captured us so that we cannot wait to see what happens next? I am curious, but equally as much about why the continuity is so poor in a movie that should be better. It is small things, like when Trevor hands the yoyo to Sean. In Trevor’s hand it is unwound. In Sean’s hand it is wound. And when Trevor is reading the book, he is on page 215 near the end, until the camera angle changes and he is at the front of the book, followed by another camera change that shows him towards the end of the book, not quite to page 215. But even worse, towards the beginning of the movie, the lighting changes with each change of the camera angle. Where the sun is shining on the right side of Trevor’s face, after doing a turnaround, it switches to the opposite side. There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the lighting and colour, which changes as often as the camera does. Another continuity error was in the carpet on the floor of Trevor’s place. There is a rug on the floor, but when Sean is doing yoyo tricks, the carpet is gone (not to mention that Sean picks up the yoyo and does tricks with it that most people take time to learn.) Time of day is also missed, when it goes from bright daylight at home to dark night at the lab. But the characters are still lit as they would be in daylight. The same is true when they return to the house. It is lit like daylight, although it is night. And this failure of consistent lighting continues through the whole movie. When they arrive in Iceland, I was thinking that since they are far away from any town, the night should be dark. But it is lit so well, that you can almost see the film lighting just off camera. Then I realized we are in Iceland in July. It’s almost like being in the land of the midnight sun. They walk up to a house, and knock. They meet Hannah Asgeirsson (Anita Briem), the daughter of the professor they are looking for. Standing at the door, she is lit from her left. Trevor faces her, but he is also lit from the left (her right.) And the adventure has yet to start. Hannah agrees to act as guide to take them to the sensor on the mountain. They walk 30 kilometers, run to a cave to hide from a thunderstorm, and get trapped by a rockslide. Logic has taken a leap at this point and once trapped in the cave, the adventurers seem to lose any hope of getting it back again. Sean’s cell phone can’t get a signal, adding to their distress. They decide that they cannot remove the rocks after moving one small boulder, so will take one of several tunnels to see if it will lead them out. They reach a drop-off and instead of returning, they rappel down two hundred feet. This puts them in an abandoned mine with cars and tracks. Good choice or poor logic? There they find a generator that starts right up and lights up the mine. I’m sure it’s a homage to Indiana Jones but the scene with them running through the caverns on the mine ore cars is almost the same. When Trevor’s car hits the end of the tracks, it knocks a hole into a volcanic tube, which is loaded with raw diamonds emeralds and rubies. But while they are celebrating their good luck (that the miners had missed for many years before the mine shut down), the floor falls out and they drop to a pool very far below. They free fall for a minute and forty seconds, which must be a fair drop. They land in water, which cushions their fall. A flock of glowing birds leads them out of the cavern to what is “a world within the world,” “… thousands of miles beneath the crust of the earth.” So they continue on to the jungle, and find a place where someone has lived. It turns out to be Max, and Hannah finds his body although we never see it nor are told anything other than Hannah thinks she found Max. They bury Max on the beach, and cover him with rocks. There are no rocks seen on the beach, but perhaps they brought the rocks from the cave where they left their backpacks after the fall. The backpacks are not on the raft, but they do return to Trevor and Hannah as the walk through the rocks to the desert. Another continuity error is seen in Sean’s wardrobe. Sometimes he wears a T-shirt under his t-shirt and other times he doesn’t. They build a raft and take off sailing for the opposite side of the inland sea. A storm catches them, and then a school of man-eating fish with huge teeth jump out of the water. As they are beating these off with the sticks they brought for the purpose, Sean’s cell phone goes off with a call from his mother. Remember, we are a long way underground. It’s a good thing that a flying fish with big teeth flies by and takes the cell phone from Sean’s hand, or he’d have to explain what he is doing miles inside the earth. I’m trying to get the name of the carrier that supplied the cell phone as reception like that is something I’d like to have. The lack of continuity continues through the remainder of the film, as well as a reflection seen occasionally (especially in the eyes) of green, which seems to be from the green screen background used in most of the film. Another shading along edge of colours seems to be a vestige of the 3-D version, included in this DVD package. There is a green tinge on many parts of the movie, but it comes and goes within the scenes. One interesting feature of this DVD is the 3-D copy included. It seemed from the marketing hype that this is something that will revolutionize DVD movies. I anxiously installed the disc and put on the included red/green glasses anticipating something like the movies in the theatres using polarized 3-D. Viewing on a large computer monitor did give a sense of depth, but the novelty wore off quite quickly. The picture lost many shades and colours, leaving a green tinge to anything white, and it was hard to focus precisely on objects. Lighting changes were noticeable, while the picture was darker than the normal versions (also included on the other side of the disc.) Solid blues were very vibrant while reds almost disappeared. Flesh tones varied from good to grey. A lot of the contrast from colours was lost. After about twenty minutes, I’d had enough as I was getting a headache. I did eventually watch the whole movie in 3-D. Did I enjoy it? I tried the disc on a LCD TV using both an HD player and an upscanning DVD player. The HD player would show the fullscreen and widescreen version well, but would not play the 3-D version. On another computer with LCD monitor, the same results occurred, which suggest that the colour inconsistency is on the disc. It also suggests that some players may have problems showing the 3-D version. The story was generally okay for a low budget fantasy, as was the acting. The special effects were reasonably good, but the background often appeared like a matt painting (which it was), especially on the 3-D version. Note: Matt paintings are supposed to look real, not like paintings. Even the picture on the cover is not accurate, as Hannah was never on the magnetic rocks (Sean was). But hey, the makers are permitted some creative license, aren’t they? This may be a movie that children may enjoy more than adults. It has dinosaurs and the mine railway scene that are pretty exciting, if one is young enough to enjoy them. Younger people may also be less critical of colour, lighting and continuity. In spite of all the flaws, I did enjoy this movie and watched it many times. I wouldn’t buy it new (… if I weren’t reviewing it), but it is fine as a rental. After seeing it, (or if it was seen and enjoyed at the theatre) consider buying it as PV (previously viewed). That would be a fair value. Contents: One double-sided disc, 4 pair of 3-D glasses. Side A – Widescreen feature, Fullscreen feature (both 2-D) Special Features Commentary by Brendan Fraser & Director Eric Brevig A World Within Our World feature Being Josh (Hutcherson) feature How to Make Dinosaur Drool feature Adventure at the Center of the Earth (games) Side B – Widescreen feature 3-D, Special Features Commentary by Brendan Fraser & Director Eric Brevig |