Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is the big budget blockbuster sequel of the 2008 Action Adventure, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and is just as much fun to watch through as the first one. The story has a slight continuation on the first, but you could quite easily watch Journey 2 without the need to go back and see what happened previously.
We follow Sean (who was a character in the first movie – played by Josh Hutcherson from The Hunger Games) and his step-father (played by Dwayne Johnson, who seems to have dropped “The Rock” as his nickname in the credits) and their search for a mythical Island which is written about by Jules Verne in his book “The Mysterious Island”. There are tons of references to Verne and his other books, but again, you don’t need to have read the books to follow what is going on, and most people have heard of most of the things that he wrote about in the 1870’s. I find Verne’s work intriguing as he pioneered the Science Fiction genre and wrote about many things long before they had been invented. Although the film is in no way based on the book, it’s still exciting to see a lost paradise brought to life in full HD.
The other characters are played by fairly big names; Michael Caine, Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman fill the cast and pull off their roles fairly well, albeit in a slightly predictable manor.
The action is extremely big, loud and far-fetched and it is clear that the target audience was pre-teens, but it is lots of fun nonetheless. There are no alarm bells for kids watching, perhaps some scary moments with big creatures which may frighten little ones, but Journey 2 is perfectly suitable for children 8 and up. My 10 year old son rates Journey 2 a solid 10/10. If you have kids it’s worth buying on Bluray, if not, it’s good fun to rent and watch on a mid-week Wednesday Movie Night. If you live in Port Elizabeth and surrounds you’re welcome to contact me for my guide on the best place to buy or rent your movies.
Dubbel Gee’s Rating: 6.5/10
Author: Garth Ginsburg
Website: http://dubbelgeesreview.wordpress.com
