Journey 2: The Mysterious Island: Blu Ray Review
Rating: PGReleased by Warner Bros Home Video
Back to the world of the fantasy lost island
film genre we go after the success of Journey to the Centre of the Earth a
couple of years ago.
This
time around, when rebellious teenager Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) gets a coded
distress signal from an island which shouldn't exist, he's convinced it's his
grandfather, Alexander, trying to get in touch.
But
Sean's faced with a couple of problems - a stepfather Hank (Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson) who's an embarrassment as far as Sean's concerned - and a
lack of transport to help him get to the South Pacific.
So, when Hank helps decode the message, Sean
"lets" the stepdad come along - and on the way, the duo hook up with
Luis Guzman's Gabato, the only helicopter pilot willing to fly to the island -
and Gabato's daughter -and potential love interest for Sean - Kailani (Vanessa
Hudgens).
However,
when the quartet finds the island, they discover their time will be cut fatally
short as it's sinking and if they're unable to make their way off, they'll be
stranded forever....
Journey
2 The Mysterious Island is skewed to a younger audience - a family
with younger kids will definitely enjoy the relatively short outing (though the
parents may find parts of it a stretch).
Hutcherson
and Hudgens work reasonably well together; Dwayne Johnson has a goofy, if ever
so slightly annoying, charm as Hank - even if he does try to be self effacing
and ends up more irritating. When he's butting heads with Michael Caine's Alexander,
there's a nice vibe between the pair, but it can't save the film.
Entirely
predictable, Journey 2 The Mysterious Island plods along well enough with a
side of cheese coating its dialogue and action sequences, which never fully
soar.
The
use of the 3D though is utterly appalling and lazy in the extreme - one
sequence where Johnson gets to show off his "dancing pecs" (don't
ask) is shoe horned in simply to have a series of objects shoot off the screen
and into the audience. And that in a nutshell is what's wrong with this - if it
was a little more relaxed and less cynical, Journey 2 would be watchable to all
sections of the audience.
Rating:
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