Movie Review: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

Okay, just to be clear, The Mysterious Island (2012) is not a great movie. What it is is a fun adventure film, perfect for the whole family.

TSean Anderson receives a message from his grandfather, who claims to have found the “Mysterious Island” that Jules Verne wrote about in 1974. Anderson’s stepfather, played by, Dwayne Johnson, helpe him decode the message and then decides tot ake the bonding moment even farhter, heading out of a quest to the South Pacific. On the island of Palau, they hire a tour guide to take them to the island, and his daughter comes along, too. Before long, they’ve arrived at the Mysterious Island, Grandpa shows up. He shows them all the wonders of the isldand, and it is an amazing place, but they quickly realize they need to get off now, becuase the whole place is sinking.

There are of course, all kinds of obstacles, most notably giant bugs, birds and lizards. And trekkig across the jungles of the isldand is not easy. I don’t need to tell you that it has a happy ending, of course, with everyone working together and making it out alive. In the mautilus, by the way.

It was funny, for me and for the kids in the audience. I enjoyed it. The Rock, I mean Dwayne Johnson, doesn’t hurt either. I like him. He’s good looking, a decent actor, and he makes me smile. Even the 3D didn’t annoy me as much as it usually does, but I tend to like 3D more when It’s used on live action films with CGI thrown in, as opposed to cartoons.

Go see it. It’s a fun way to spend an evening, especially if you have kids.

But even more important, the movie made me want to read Jules Vernes novels. There were a few mentioned in the film: The Mysterious Island, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon. Other notable novels that helped point the way to the island were Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, because of course they were all talking about the same island. Maybe The Mysterious Island will inspire more folks to pull out the classics, books full of adventure, humor, excitement, danger.