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Yet
the three-dimensional breakthroughs employed in ``Journey to
the Center of the Earth'' come close.
In just two dimensions, Brendan Fraser's subterranean adventure
to the planet's midsection probably would play as what it is at
its core: A lame bit of hokum that's less a story than a
theme-park ride.
With crisp images and depth that make you feel you could reach
out and stick your hand into the middle of the action, the movie
projected in digital 3-D form actually makes that theme-park
ride kind of fun.
The trouble is, there are nowhere near enough theaters yet
equipped to project digital 3-D flicks in Hollywood's nationwide
pattern of 3,000-plus cinemas, so most of the places it'll play
will be in two dimensions.
Images of carnivorous fish leaping from an underground ocean
right at the camera still may look cool in 2-D. But a shot from
the perspective of a sink drain as Fraser spits out his
toothbrush backwash into the lens—effective and funny in
3-D—most likely will just look weird when the extra dimension is
taken away.
In his directing debut, veteran visual-effects supervisor Eric
Brevig makes the most of the 3-D technology that uses two
side-by-side digital cameras to simulate the perspective
provided by the right and left eyes. Moviegoers must wear
glasses, but they're of higher caliber than the flimsy cardboard
ones used for old-time 3-D flicks.
Audiences already have been treated to similar effects in recent
Hannah Montana and U2 concert movies, imagery actually floating
off the screen so movie fans practically felt as if they were
banging elbows with the live crowds.
``Journey to the Center of the Earth'' follows their lead in
providing an almost tangible world that makes the eye-straining,
headache-inducing 3-D movies of past decades look like the
cheesy gimmick they were.
This is not Jules Verne's sci-fi classic retold, though the
movie does use his book as a template for a modern trek down
below.
Essentially a three-character story, the movie casts Fraser as
absent-minded geologist Trevor Anderson, who forgets his nephew
Sean (Josh Hutcherson) is coming for a visit.
Trevor's brother, the boy's dad, mysteriously vanished years
earlier on a field expedition in Iceland. Just as Sean arrives,
Trevor stumbles on clues left by his brother that lead him to
believe Verne's fantasy novel actually was based on a real
journey to the earth's center. So he takes the boy along to
Iceland to follow his brother's footsteps.
They meet up with local guide Hannah (Anita Briem), and the
threesome almost instantly finds themselves tumbling and racing
through the planet's interior, encountering glowing birds,
ravenous sea creatures and a pasty-faced dinosaur aiming to
snack on them.
While there are gimmicky shots designed to make audiences jerk
in their seats as things come at them in 3-D mode, Brevig
restrains the impulse to use the technology for too many cheap
jolts.
Generally, the 3-D images are fashioned to make fans feel as
though they're sitting inside the movie rather than being
assaulted by moving objects within it.
The simple-minded screenplay credited to Michael Weiss, Jennifer
Flackett and Mark Levin amounts to little more than amiable but
empty patter that almost could have been dreamed up on the spot
to fill the gaps between the nonstop action sequences.
This is a movie made solely as a thrill ride. But be warned: The
ride may not be too thrilling if you see it in conventional 2-D
cinema, so try to catch the 3-D version.
``Journey to the Center of the Earth,'' released by the Warner
Bros. unit New Line Cinema, runs 93 minutes. Two and a half
stars out of four.
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