Journey to the Center of the Earth 2008

 Released Year: 2008

Directed by Eric Brevig

Casted by:

Brendan Fraser as Prof. Trevor 'Trev' Anderson

Josh Hutcherson as Sean Anderson

Anita Briem as Hannah Ásgeirsson

 Story:

In the opening scene, Max Anderson is being pursued by a dinosaur, a Giganotosaurus. Max then comes across a fissure vent. When he tries to jump across, he falls to his death while calling out the name of his brother. Ten years later, Max's brother volcanologist Trevor Anderson is visited by Max's son/Trevor's 13-year-old nephew Sean Anderson. In a box of items that belonged to Max is a book, Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. Notes written by Max are found inside the book.

In Trevor's volcanology laboratory, a device shows activity on Snæfell, a dormant volcano in Iceland. Trevor and Sean travel to Iceland to investigate. They try to contact Icelandic volcanologist Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson, but instead encounter his daughter Hannah Ásgeirsson, her father having died some years earlier.[3] It turns out that Sigurbjörn and Max were both Vernians, a group of people who believe the works of Jules Verne to be fact, not fiction.

Hannah offers to help them climb the volcano. While the group is hiking up the volcano, a lightning storm forces them to take shelter in a cave. The cave entrance collapses, leaving them trapped in what appears to be an abandoned mine. They reach the bottom of a volcanic vent, the floor of the vent breaks, and they begin to fall towards the center of the Earth. The volcanic vent eventually becomes a water slide which drops them safely into a lake in the center of the Earth, which turns out to be a completely separate world contained within the Earth. Hannah is seen sinking because her pack was too heavy. She's later saved by Trevor.

The group starts seeking a way back to the surface. Along the way, they find evidence that someone had been there a hundred years ago. Trevor remarks that some instruments found are Lidenbrock's (the name of a character in Jules Verne's book Journey to the Center of the Earth). This suggests that another group had previously made the journey, somehow returned to the surface and recounted the tale of their adventure to Verne. They find some of Max's things as well.

While Trevor and Sean are examining what they've found, Hannah discovers Max's body. They bury Max on the beach of the underground ocean and Trevor reads a letter to Sean found in Max's journal. Trevor discovers that his brother died due to dehydration because of hot magma surrounding the center of the Earth.

Using information from Max's journal, Trevor determines that they must find a geyser that can send them to the surface before the temperature rises to 200 °F (about 93 °C). Further, they must reach the geyser within 48 hours or the water for the geyser will have evaporated. They build a raft and begin crossing the underground ocean, but soon encounter a pack of Xiphactinus. They use makeshift clubs to bat them away, then a shoal of Elasmosaurus attacks the Xiphactinus. The raft's sail becomes loose. Sean tries to hold on, but is blown away and separated from the two adults.

A little bird guides Sean towards the river. Meanwhile, Trevor and Hannah decide to take a rest, but are attacked by carnivorous plants. Hannah is captured and being strangled by the plants. Trevor defeats the plant that is holding Hannah by the neck, and they continue towards the geyser.

When they arrive at the river Trevor calls out to Sean but gets no response. Trevor says he is going to look for Sean, but tells Hannah she should continue on to the geyser and save herself. Meanwhile, Sean has entered an arid, bone-filled land. He hears roars, looks up and sees a Giganotosaurus coming after him. Trevor saves him. When they get to a river, they find Hannah sailing a boat fashioned from a Giganotosaurus skull. They sail to a volcano with magma rising in its crater. They are too late; the water needed for the geyser has evaporated.

Sean notices that the crater walls are wet. Trevor hears water flowing on the other side of the walls and sees that the crater walls contain magnesium. After Trevor uses a flare to ignite the magnesium, a geyser shoots them up and out of the Center of the Earth. They emerge in Italy from Mount Vesuvius. When they fall, they accidentally destroy a vineyard. To make amends, Sean gives the owner a diamond that he found while in the Center of the Earth. Trevor sees that Sean has many more diamonds in his backpack. Trevor later uses them to fund his late brother's laboratory.

During the adventure, Hannah and Trevor gradually become closer and eventually share a kiss. After the adventure, Sean visits Trevor and Hannah in their new home purchased using some of the diamonds Sean took from the cave. Trevor hands Sean a book about another strange land, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by Ignatius L. Donnelly, and suggests they get together during Sean's Christmas break. Sean reveals that he has brought the little bird back from the center of the Earth to keep as a pet. However, the bird flies away ending the movie.

  L² Scored: 9/10 

L² Comment:

I always think that this movie is much more fun and excited to watch than the Journey 2, which was lead by Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson as well. Its not because of Brendan Fraser, but overall the storyline was very interesting and kinda new for me... even though this is not the first time they shot this movie (same name with the fiction).

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

 Released Year: 2012

Directed by Brad Peyton

Casted by:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Hank Parsons

Josh Hutcherson as Sean Anderson

Vanessa Hudgens as Kailani

Michael Caine as Alexander Anderson

Luis Guzman as Gabato

 Story:

 Sean Anderson is caught by the police escaping from a satellite research center where he was attempting to access a signal broadcast that was too faint to pick up outside of the facility. Escorted home by his stepfather, Hank Parsons, he eventually reveals that the mysterious broadcast he was attempting to access was a set of indistinguishable words that he is trying to decode. Hank, in an attempt to bond with his stepson, solves the code which tells them to look for Treasure Island, Gulliver's Travels, and Verne's Mysterious Island and Sean suggest that they were all based on the same island. Hank then tears out each page with a map in each book and shines a light through them to make one map that reveals the islands co-ordinates. Sean believes that his long lost grandfather was the one behind the transmission, and that he has discovered the island. Sean and Hank immediately set out for the island of Palau. Both Hank and his wife, Liz, don't believe anything that Sean is convinced of, such as the fact that the Mysterious Island could exist and that his grandfather discovered it, but after Hank considers that this trip could help bring him closer to his usually anti-social step son, the couple decide it would be ideal.

Once arriving at Palau, they board a private helicopter run by Gabato and his daughter Kailani, whom Sean immediately develops a crush on. The four travel to the coordinates until their helicopter is hit by a freak storm, causing them to crash on the island, where every big animal in the outside world is small and every small animal is giant (inspiring Jonathan Swift to write Gulliver's Travels). They are then chased through the forest by a giant lizard until they finally meet Sean's grandfather, Alexander Anderson. He leads them back to his hut where they spend the night. Once it is determined that a radio signal for a distress call can only be sent once a fortnight, it is decided that the group will stay put until then. Alexander calls Hank, Henry, and he tells him that it's Hank, not Henry.

The next day the five travel to the lost city of Atlantis, buried far back in the jungles. There Hank finds evidence to believe that the island is slowly sinking. It is revealed through Alexander that the island sinks underwater once every 140 years or so due to shifting tectonic plates, and that they still have years before the next cycle begins. Hank’s recent discovery, however, shows that Alexander's calculations are wrong and that the island will sink in a few days. From there the group set out to Captain Nemo’s tomb, which contains his journal holding the whereabouts of the legendary submarine, The Nautilus, their only hope of escaping on time. Once the journal is uncovered, they set out towards Nautilus, encountering various obstacles in their path. Sean’s right ankle is dislocated after a dog fight involving a giant Bee-eater (erroneously claimed to be a White-throated Needletail) because he fell from his mounted bee, and the group is slowed down. The next morning it is discovered that Gabato has left the group to return to a previously passed volcano of gold (inspiring Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island), which he believes is his and Kailani’s only hope of living a decent life. Kailani and Alexander set out to find him while Hank and Sean continue to look for the Nautilus.

Once at the submarine’s entrance, the two are disheartened to find that the rising sea level has buried the cave underwater and that they must dive to where it is located. Using a simple breathing device, they manage to reach the submarine and open the entrance hatch, narrowly avoiding a nasty encounter with a giant electric eel.

Kailani and Alexander eventually find Gabato and convince him to return to the submarine. Once there, they are distraught to discover that Hank and Sean are nowhere in sight. Upon finding Alexander's cane that Sean had been using as a crutch, the three realize that Hank and Sean dived to get to the submarine. Unknown to them, the pair are attempting to start the submarine, although the batteries are long exhausted. Hank devises a plan to use the eel to conduct enough electricity to kick start the Nautilus, and equipping a basic diving suit, exits the sub to confront the eel and throw a harpoon at it.

Once the submarine starts, they quickly travel to the surface and retrieve the other three. Sean and Kailani later share a kiss. Six months later, Gabato is head of a successful tourism movement on Palau, and has enough money to send Kailani to the United States where she is dating Sean and attending college. At Sean's birthday, Alexander gives him a copy of From the Earth to the Moon, and proposes another journey (to the moon), as a family. The film ends with Sean, Kailani, and his family reading the book together, and a view of the moon, with plans for another adventure.

  L² Scored: 7.5/10

L² Comment:

How could i ever miss this film in the first place? This is a great 3D movie and a bit better than the first movie i think. Josh Hutcherson has grown up and look so cute :) though he's body not as hot as the rock, but of course, the youth win it all :) Hopefully the Journey 3 will be out soon~