REVIEW OF JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

Tweet

Domestic Total as of Feb. 15, 2012: $31,972,276
Distributor: Warner Bros.	Release Date:February 10, 2012
Genre: Adventure	Runtime: 1 hrs. 34 min.
MPAA Rating: PG	Production Budget: $79 million

In this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit Journey to the Center of the Earth, the new 3D family adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island begins when young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It's a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. Unable to stop him from going, Sean's new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shock waves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever. 

What's Good About the Movie:

THE ROCK!!!!

What's Bad About the Movie:

The movie flies by pleasantly, and is then instantly forgettable. Perhaps Jules Verne can explain the science of that. What may remain in memory a bit longer is the accompanying Looney Tunes shortDaffy's Rhapsody, about the existential relationship between the wily waterfowl Daffy Duck and the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd. It features the voice of the late maestro Mel Blanc, taken from a Daffy song recorded in the 1950s. The cartoon is in 3-D, which to this purist is vewwy, vewwy wrong — unless the animators meant Elmer to look more like Dick Cheney than like the Fudd we know. 

Overall Grade: C