- Listen to the entire program<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/p>\n
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<\/a>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. <\/strong><\/p>\nJonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. <\/em><\/p>\n
Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net<\/a>. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim<\/a>, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews<\/a>. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant<\/a>. <\/p>\n
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u2018Journey 2: the Mysterious Island\u2019 is VERY loosely based on the 1874 book by Jules Verne, \u2018The Mysterious Island\u2019, and the film is a sequel to the 2008 film \u2018Journey to the Center of the Earth\u2019, which is a slightly closer adaptation to Verne\u2019s 1864 novel. The first \u2018Journey\u2019 has the distinction of being the first live-action digital 3D film, which means it\u2019s filled with objects and animals being flung at the camera, flying debris, and lots of CG graphics to make use of the novel but often annoying added dimension \u2014 and since \u2018Journey\u2019 made over $240 million, \u2018Journey 2\u2019 is no different.<\/p>\n
The film opens with the now moodier teenage Sean (played by Josh Hutcherson), evading the police after stealing a coded transmission he believes is from his long lost grandfather, who Sean believes has found the Mysterious Island Verne might have based his book on, since Sean and his grandfather belong to a group known as \u201cVernians\u201d who believe that Verne\u2019s science-fiction novels are based on actual people and places. <\/p>\n
After decoding the transmission with the help of his stepfather Hank, a former Navy man played by professional wrestler turned actor Dwayne Johnson, the two head to Palau, where they hire a helicopter pilot (played by Luiz Guzman) and his daughter (played by Vanessa Hudgens) to see if the island really exists. Naturally, they find the island, a place where normally large animals are miniaturized and small ones grow enormous. After locating Sean\u2019s grandfather (played by Michael Caine), they embark on a race to escape the island before it sinks into the ocean. <\/p>\n
\u2018Journey 2\u2019 is clearly aimed at fairly young children, which is supposed to excuse the fact that the dialogue is clunky, the performances are wooden, the emotions inauthentic, and gaping plot holes are brushed aside as long as they provide an excuse for a supposedly harrowing chase or another CG creation to fly at the camera. There are no lessons to be learned, few laughs, and little growth to be found, and it\u2019s hard to imagine that kids will feel a kinship with any of the characters. If young viewers are unfamiliar with Verne and his legacy, I imagine they\u2019ll find the references to his work confusing, while parents who are fans of Verne will probably feel cheated or disgusted by a film that turns a beloved classic into little more than a forgettable video game.<\/p>\n
Unless, of course, a parent\u2019s goal in taking their child to see \u2018Journey 2\u2019 is simply to have their kid sit still and be quiet for an hour and a half as they\u2019re dazzled by meaningless spectacle, even if it costs the ever-increasing price of a movie ticket with a 3D surcharge as well as snacks. While \u2018Journey 2\u2019 doesn\u2019t strike me as overtly evil or damaging, it feels cynical and unambitious both in the way it uses Verne\u2019s name as well as how it views its target audience. While Verne\u2019s books exude a palpable feeling of wonder, adventure, and curiosity, perhaps the best parents can hope for is that their children are mature enough to recognize that all of these are sadly lacking in \u2018Journey 2\u2019 and demand something better next time.<\/p>\n
\u2018Journey 2: the Mysterious Island\u2019 is rated PG and opens today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rethink-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}