REVIEW: 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D'

Sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, swapping out Brendan Fraser for Dwayne Johnson as the new lead. Now playing nationwide in 3D and in 2D.
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The sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth does little to diverge from the typical formula. Essentially, it’s the hamburger meat of American family adventure films. Every element feels overly processed, from characters with standard stapled-on personalities to story arcs that can be predicted beat-for-beat.

That’s not to say it’s a bad film. The 3D is decent, the pacing is spot-on, there’s a lot going on visually to sooth the most impatient of attention spans and four of the five protagonists didn’t get on my nerves. But if you’ve seen even a couple of family-friendly adventures, you’ve seen Journey 2. It’s straightforward and completely inoffensive. Well, excluding Dwayne Johnson’s pec-flexing berry-juggling scene. I may write a disgruntled letter to New Line Cinema about that.

If you’ve got kids to entertain for 90 minutes, this’ll serve as a harmless method of doing so.

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