by Marmars Schlottman

Created on: August 08, 2008

This summer is full of fantasy and super heroes along with 3-D movies. This summer has been one of the best in several years. Journey to the center of the Earth is a fun and exciting just like a roller coaster ride!

You have volcanoes, free falling, water slide action, dinosaurs to a roller coaster ride in the mines and all in 3-D! If you want to feel the action, sitting in the right seat towards the back can give the motion, believe me. I would love to have this movie in my library with 3-D in it because I would love to see it on my big screen TV.

Brendan Fraser (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) is back in one of Jules Verne's novels. This movie takes us on an up -to-date look from this tale into the 21st century. Fraser plays Uncle Trevor to his Nephew Alex played by Josh Hutcherson (RV and The Bridge to Terabitha) who is staying with his uncle for a couple of weeks. Brendan's character is a professor at a University whose brother (Alex's father) had disappeared a year ago where they were working on a project together, that was not doing well financially. Which Trevor and Alex discovered clues in Alex's dad book of Jules Verne's Novel and an extra beacon which takes them on a new adventure.

This movie may only consist of only three characters most of the time but the journey into the volcano is an awesome adventure! As seen in commercials they encountered a T-Rex among other spectacular encounters including the volcano itself. The 3-D effects are a lot of fun with dripping toothpaste to things that popped out at you along with wanting to grab them. The movie had gentle creatures to enormous plant eaters.

The third actor in this wonderful fantasy movie is Anita Briem who plays Hannah their tour guide. This Icelandic actress had started out in Hollywood with a movie called Cold Trail (2006), so keep your eyes on this new gal. Trevor and Alex were making dibs on her during most of the movie. Of course the kid tries his best and it is predictable towards the end who wins the dib. Hannah helped her father's institution whom her father also disappeared which she did not continued, or as she put, "It never existed." She made her own business by giving tours of the mountain. Fraser's portrayal of Trevor as an intelligent, yet, a bit of a fun know-it-all adventurer whom is afraid of heights.

I thought at first Josh Hutcherson's character, Alex, was a typical teenager at first until he made decisions of his own which gave the character a chance to grow. This also gave him a chance to be on his own in a sense it was good, and yet a bad situation when he is cornered by the T-Rex. Therefore during the whole experienced I since Alex was looking for answers why his father went into the center of the earth. I like the fact that Alex wanted to spend more time with his Uncle Trevor rather than his mother at the end of the movie which I thought was hit of a sequel.

Overall, the director Eric Brevig envision the movie with excellent CG's to give it a fantasy world which I thought the ocean scene where they had to cross the ocean to reach the other side in order to get out, but they experienced some sea creatures of colossal size which was a pinnacle part of getting out. I am a sucker for these kinds of movies but I love the concept of taking a journey to the center of the earth wondering want lies there? Then, again curiosity kills the cat! I really enjoyed this movie and I do recommend it, highly with 3-D glasses including the I-Max but just the same on any screen. It's a perfect clean fun movie for all ages and not a single dirty word in it.

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