journey 2 prequel

Screen Rant

'journey 3' on the way after success of 'mysterious island'.

With the success of 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island' New Line is moving ahead with 'Journey 3'. The writers and director of the sequel are returning for the threequel - but will headliners like Dwayne Johnson also be back?

When New Line said they were making Journey 2: The Mysterious Island  we were (understandably) skeptical. The first film - a.k.a. the Brendan Fraser-starring Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D  - might've been a financial success ($240 million on a $60 million budget), but it wasn't exactly adored by critics, and if history was any indicator, the sequel was likely to pale in comparison. However, Journey 2 managed to surprise us (read our fairly positive review ) and has gone on to become a hit at the worldwide box office ($271 million on a $79 million budget - and climbing).

With that kind of track record, it's not at all surprising that Journey 3  is on the way.

THR reports that the Journey threequel is already pushing forward, with Journey 2 director Brad Peyton and co-writers/cousins Mark and Brian Gunn all closing deals to return for the next installment. This should be welcome news for those who generally appreciated the fun adventure of the second film more than the somewhat cheesy antics of its predecessor (I know I'm happy about it). For those who care: the producers of the second film are also shepherding the third, which will once again be a 3D, Jules Verne-inspired, family-friendly adventure tale.

For the general public, however, the question at hand is: will the cast of Journey 2 be back for Journey 3 ?

Actor Josh Hutcherson has starred in both Journey films so far - but with a major role in The Hunger Games this month (and contractual obligations for that film's almost-certain sequels), Hutcherson could be too busy - not to mention too grown up - for a third Journey (unless he's already signed for it, which we're not certain of at this point).

More importantly, though, is the question of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The action star was undoubtedly a big draw for Journey 2 , and like Hutcherson, Johnson is only gaining fame at the moment, with a starring role in this summer's blockbuster sequel G.I. Joe 2 , a role in Michael Bay's Pain and Gain , and a commitment to Fast and the Furious 6 , which is currently in pre-production. Journey 3  would be much better off with The Rock in it, but it would be understandable why the actor might want to continue leaving his family-friendly phase behind (see: The Game Plan , Tooth Fairy ) and stay in the action lane. Without Johnson, the franchise would need a new box office draw - we leave it to you to debate whether having Fraser back, or tapping a new face would be the better "Plan B".

New Line wants to get the ball rolling on Journey 3  to make a 2014 release date. That deadline makes it even more tricky for busy actors like Johnson and/or Hutcherson to be available for a return. We should hear something on the casting front sooner before later.

Look for Journey 3 in 2014.

Source: THR

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Movie Review

Volcanic Adventures in Jules Verne Country

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By Neil Genzlinger

• Feb. 9, 2012

Like cars that are involved in crashes, islands explode far more often in the movies than they do in real life. Another one goes kablooey in “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” a sequel to the 2008 film “Journey to the Center of the Earth” that again gives a Jules Verne tale 3-D treatment.

Sean (Josh Hutcherson), the only major returnee from the earlier movie , receives a radio transmission that leads him to believe that his grandfather is on a fantastical island in the middle of nowhere, and he and his stepfather (Dwayne Johnson) go looking for it.

The usual escape-before-the-big-blast stuff ensues, augmented by some fairly tedious family dynamics. But this kind of movie is all about the special effects. They start out great — cool helicopter crash, very convincing giant lizard — but grow more amateurish as the film goes along, with a flight sequence on giant bees proving particularly clunky.

Michael Caine plays the grandfather, and the efforts at repartee between his character and Mr. Johnson’s occasionally amuse. Vanessa Hudgens from the “High School Musical” movies is on hand too, though it’s Mr. Johnson who gets to sing. Besides that musical moment, the movie makes no effort to do anything other than what is expected, and it succeeds at that.

“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Angry animals and an angrier landscape.

Opens on Friday nationwide. Directed by Brad Peyton 1 hour 34 minutes.

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journey 2: the mysterious island (2012)

Journey 2: the mysterious island.

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 17-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson 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 shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

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Journey 2 reveals the mysterious allure of islands

Jules Verne's works have much to offer the makers of CGI-prone, 3D-disposed kids' adventure flicks. The 2008 version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth did well enough at the box office, so a sequel was obligatory. We could have had Captain Nemo's submarine odyssey, the exploration of Africa from a balloon or a voyage to the moon by cannon-fired projectile. Instead, we get a trip to an island.

Even in Verne's day, this was considered a bit of a let-down. The author's publisher rejected the first version of what was to become The Mysterious Island with the reproach: "Where is the science?" To beef things up a bit, Verne got his adventurers blown off course while escaping from a war zone by balloon. Less thrillingly, the heroes of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island travel instead by downmarket tourist chopper.

Still, their destination is an island, and islands enjoy a special place in the human imagination. Those who can, including Marlon Brando, John Wayne and Mel Gibson, have insisted on actually owning one. Tiberius preferred to rule the Roman empire from Capri, while to create Nineteen Eighty-Four , Orwell felt obliged to maroon himself on Jura. A poet called Kimon Friar lived on 46 different islands ; a decorator called Andy Strangeway has slept on 162 ; a conservationist called Philip Conkling has visited a thousand .

The allure prompting such behaviour infected cinema from its beginnings. The first big-screen version of Verne's The Mysterious Island appeared in 1929, though the 1961 stop-motion animation is better remembered and the little-known Soviet version has its admirers. Island settings have sustained films as different as Jaws, South Pacific, The Wicker Man, Dr No and Il Postino, or more recently Mamma Mia!, Shutter Island and Archipelago.

Our preoccupation with islands goes back to classical times, while since the middle ages, both paradises and hell-holes have typically been envisaged on islands. This year, the BBC celebrates the 70th anniversary of its longest-running programme, Desert Island Discs , and Danny Boyle presents his Olympian extravaganza , entitled, fittingly enough, Isles of Wonder.

The role of islands in the human psyche has been much pondered , but the artefacts that they've inspired offer clues enough. Works such as The Tempest, Utopia, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and Lord of the Flies may seem very different, but they utilise the same obvious but distinct features of isolation.

Islands are necessarily extrinsic; but, unlike deserts, forests or mountain ranges, they're also peculiarly finite. This makes them theatres in which alternative worlds can readily take the stage.

Evolution makes this happen automatically, as Darwin discovered in the Galapagos . Journey 2: The Mysterious Island relies on Foster's rule , which asserts that island life-forms may get larger if cut off from predators or smaller if denied mainland nutrients. That's why Michael Caine is subjected to the indignity of having to ride on a giant bee. However, as in so many island fictions, human character also evolves.

Islands provide distance from familiar ways of thinking and invite or require reassessments. Visits to them, real or imaginary, can be as conceptually disruptive as any sojourn in the contrived landscapes of science fiction. They enable us, as one writer has it, "to know ourselves as distinct from those around us, and, in so doing, forge a more articulated relationship with the world" . So it is, sort of, in Journey 2.

The film's protagonists are peculiarly unappealing. As romantic leads, Josh Hutcherson and Vanessa Hudgens are both vacuous and unpleasant. Luis Guzmán is drearily gross and The Rock seems to have wandered in from another movie. The quartet's adventures are mechanically predictable. When we reach the bog-standard redemptive climax to which they're subjected, we might weep with weariness, but for one thing. It's that island locale. This makes the whole thing somehow work.

Journey 2 is based on the idea that Verne, Stevenson and Swift's books were rooted in fact; that they were prompted by rumours of an uncharted island that does actually exist . The film ends up by reminding us that just such an enchanted isle is indeed real enough. It lies, however, not in the wide ocean's stormy embrace, but amid the boundless seas of the human soul.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Where to watch.

Rent Journey 2: The Mysterious Island on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Aggressively unambitious, Journey 2 might thrill tween viewers, but most others will find it too intense for young audiences and too cartoonishly dull for adults.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Brad Peyton

Dwayne Johnson

Michael Caine

Josh Hutcherson

Vanessa Hudgens

Kristin Davis

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

• Action/Adventure , Comedy , Kids , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 10, 2012
• Dwayne Johnson as Hank; Michael Caine as Alexander; Josh Hutcherson as Sean; Vanessa Hudgens as Kailani; Luis Guzmán as Gabato

Home Release Date

• June 5, 2012
• Brad Peyton

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

It’s not that Sean hates his stepdad, Hank.

He’s no little kid anymore, though. And he doesn’t need some new “rent” hovering over him, trying to get into his business. He’s a teenager now and can take care of himself.

Still, it was kind of fun that Hank knew so much about code-breaking from his Navy days. Together they were able to decode that puzzling message from his long-lost grandfather. And they even figured out the clues about the classic novels—Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island —how they all fit together and were really about the same island.

It was really cool that Hank agreed to help him hunt down the map coordinates they found and head off on an adventure to find that secret island. They might even find Sean’s grandfather in the process! Maybe he needs to give Hank a bit more credit for trying to be a pretty good dad after all.

How many guys would shell out the kind of bank required to take this trip and hire a helicopter to check out a set of coordinates out in the middle of the Pacific? Not many. That’s definitely something in Hank’s favor.

The trip even gave Sean the chance to meet Kailani, the helicopter guy’s daughter. And boy is she cute! She’s not really giving Sean the time of day yet, but, oh well. All in all it’s been an incredible couple of days so far. And, well, Sean figures he might actually owe it all to Hank.

Sean would probably almost be ready to, kind of, tell Hank how he felt about him now … if that funnel cloud hadn’t disabled their helicopter and they weren’t crashing into the ocean. Isn’t it funny how life flashes before your eyes and things get so clear just before you’re about to croak?

Positive Elements

Hank does indeed do his best to make a connection with his standoffish stepson. And as the movie progresses, the two take great strides toward a true father/son bond. Hank talks of his own dad abandoning him when he was 8. And he makes it crystal clear that he isn’t going anywhere. As unexpectedly crazy as their adventure becomes, Hank always comes back to trying to protect Sean and make wise choices.

When Hank gives Sean a little advice about the opposite sex, his speech includes some wisdom about being sensitive and curbing a teen’s natural instincts—along with just a dash of silliness about “pec popping,” which could actually be construed, in a bit of a roundabout way, as a hedge against getting too serious too fast.

Hank’s sense of parental commitment even impacts Sean’s grandfather, Alexander, whom they do meet in the middle of their journey. Alexander had, in a way, abandoned his family in the pursuit of his research. And eventually the old scientist realizes that it’s not too late to reconnect and have the same kind of rewarding relationships that Hank is forming with Sean.

The helicopter owner, Gabato, becomes part of the adventuring crew after the crash. And we learn of his love and devotion for his daughter. He longs to send her to college to give her a better life, and he puts his own life on the line to try to dig up a large chunk of island gold to make that possible. Kailani voices her love for her dad, but tells him, “We’ll have all the wealth we need—as long as we’re together.” On several occasions, Sean makes brave choices to protect Kailani from island threats.

Spiritual Elements

When Gabato first sees the beauty of the island, he coos, “If this is heaven, I’m checking in.” When he finds the gold, he exclaims, “My prayers have been answered.”

Sexual Content

Kailani wears a figure-fitting, midriff-baring and cleavage-revealing outfit of shorts and a tank top. Sean immediately takes notice of her. And, later, they share a brief kiss. Sean’s mom sports a little cleavage too.

Violent Content

The island has a special “what is normally small grows large” property about it. And so there are several chase scenes involving giant birds, a king-sized lizard and an enormous electric eel. The result is several slo-mo images of upclose chomping mouths and barely missing snapping beaks. The birds and the lizard are all eventually knocked out cold (with the birds flying into other objects and the lizard getting thumped by rope-suspended logs). An enormous spider and some oversized centipedes are a little frightening-looking, but never a real threat.

During one chase Sean falls and dislocates his ankle. A ravaging funnel cloud snaps the tail of Gabato’s helicopter, sending it and everyone aboard plummeting to the ocean below. (The humans all survive. The helicopter, not so much.) When the mysterious island starts sinking, the land shakes, volcanoes erupt and mayhem ensues. Alexander, Gabato and Kailani fall into the churning sea and are moments away from drowning when Hank and Sean come to the rescue.

Crude or Profane Language

Two uses of “heck” and one “crap.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Questioning someone’s poor choice, Hank wonders aloud what they were drinking.

Other Negative Elements

We see Sean riding his dirt bike to elude the police after he reportedly broke into a satellite facility. Comic relief guy Gabato delivers several light poop and body odor jokes. Hank tries to scare off a giant lizard with a lit road flare: When the creature bites the top off the flare, Hank looks at it and eeps out, “That’s emasculating.”

A sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth , this film takes the same “what if?” premise of the original (What if Jules Verne’s books weren’t fabrications of the author’s imagination, but a record of his scientific discoveries?) and expands on it nicely.

New cast additions add some heft and chuckles. The mysterious island itself has lots of color and pizzazz. And the ride-a-giant-bee-and-pick-up-a-teeny-elephant contrariness of that secret place makes the journey all the more crazy and fun. Plus, the snippets of clues from classic novels make you want to explore your local library shelves.

Then add in the fact that the filmmakers go to great lengths to explore the value of strong family bonds and lasting parental commitment—while the gang is running from the mayhem of giant birds and torrential flood waters—and you’ve got a light family adventure with a fair amount going for it.

During the press screening I attended, a particularly frenetic—but not too scary—chase sequence had just taken place. We were all sitting back from the edge of our collective seats as a character onscreen asked, “Everyone all right?” And out of the audience, a small, sincere and youthful voice piped up with, “I’m OK.”

The adults in the audience chuckled, but that little moment drove the real charm of this pic home to me. This is the kind of movie that will draw in its audience with an exciting ride and a heartwarming message while making sure that even the youngest in the family feels safe and secure. And if you ask me, that’s pretty “OK” indeed.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Dwayne Johnson to Replace Brendan Fraser in ‘Journey 2’

Titled “The Mysterious Island,” New Line’s sequel has been refashioned to focus on Josh Hutcherson’s character

Johnson will play Hutcherson's mother's boyfriend, who the budding young explorer is forced to bring along on a trip to a mythical and monstrous island where he hopes to find his missing grandfather.

The script is loosely based on Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island," and will introduce three new characters who are expected to be cast shortly.

Back in May, Deal Central reported that "Earth" star Brendan Fraser was willing to hold out from the sequel out of loyalty to director Eric Brevig, who has been busy putting the finishing touches on Warner Bros.' "Yogi Bear" in time for its Dec. 17 release.

New Line wanted the "Journey" sequel for Fall 2011 and couldn't wait around for the filmmaker, so the studio decided to move forward without Brevig or Fraser, who will now miss out on the sizable payday he was in line for.

Oddly enough, Warner Bros. reportedly wanted Peyton because the studio was said to be happy with his "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore." However, that heavily-promoted sequel has earned a mere $41.5 million at the domestic box office since its July 30 release.

Contrafilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce "Journey 2," which like its $242 million-grossing predecessor, will be filmed and released in 3D. Charlotte Huggins will also produce, while Walden Media's Michael Bostick and Evan Turner will exec produce the sequel, which is aiming to begin production in late October in North Carolina and Hawaii.

Johnson apparently has a need for speed, as he is currently filming the fifth installment in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise (tentatively titled "Fast Five"), and next stars in CBS Films' action movie "Faster," which is scheduled for release on Nov. 24.

Johnson is represented by CAA.

The news was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter .

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island Parent Guide

If you're squeamish about giant centipedes or embryonic reptiles, this may not be for you. but for older children looking for some mild thrills, this may be the perfect adventure..

When Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) receives a message from his long lost grandfather (Michael Caine), he sets off to find the intrepid explorer with the help of his stepfather (Dwayne Johnson) and the owners of a dilapidated helicopter eager for cash (Luis Guzmán and Vanessa Hudgens).

Release date February 10, 2012

Run Time: 96 minutes

Official Movie Site

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

People seem to have a habit of getting lost in the Anderson family. Four years ago, Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) tagged along with his uncle (Brendan Fraser) on a Journey to the Center of the Earth in search of the boy’s missing father.

Now, Sean’s grandfather (Michael Caine) has disappeared. When the police-dodging adolescent receives a mysterious radio dispatch suggesting the family patriarch is on a mystical island, he reluctantly teams up with his code-breaking stepfather Hank (Dwayne Johnson). It’s not a happy union but one that Sean is compelled to be part of in order to get funding for the trip. On the island of Palau, Sean and Hank employ a run-down helicopter flown by Gabato (Luis Guzmán) and his daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens).

But getting off the island proves to be a problem. During the travelers’ approach, the helicopter was torn apart in a ferocious tropical storm. The group is left with only days to come up with an alternate form of transportation to escape the sinking landmass.

High on adventure, the film exposes castaways to regular bouts of peril that may be too intense for younger viewers, especially in the theatrical 3D format. However the film never takes itself too seriously and the script’s humor far outweighs the made-you-jump scenes. (And who knew, The Rock sings!) While moments of tension occur between characters, the story includes a positive father (in this case stepfather) figure, a trend that is thankfully gaining momentum.

If you’re squeamish about giant centipedes or embryonic reptiles, this larger than life caper may not be for you. But for older children looking for some mildly scary thrills, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island may translate into the perfect cinematic adventure.

Note: A Warner Brother’s short film featuring Daffy Duck as a singer on stage precedes this movie in theaters. During his performance, Daffy is repeatedly fired on by Elmer Fudd who attempts to kill the duck.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Journey 2: the mysterious island rating & content info.

Why is Journey 2: The Mysterious Island rated PG? Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is rated PG by the MPAA for some adventure action, and brief mild language.

Violence: While attempting to outrun the police, a boy on a motorcycle causes property damage before crashing in a swimming pool. He is also accused of breaking into a satellite facility. A fish’s head is chopped off in a market setting. Characters fly into a fierce tropical storm before their helicopter is destroyed, sending them into the ocean. (The scene includes some tense slow motion action as the helicopter is torn apart.) A man falls through the shell and into the interior of an egg with an embryonic reptile. A lizard is knocked out by huge swinging tree trunks. Adult males take verbal jabs at one another. Depictions of human skeletal remains are shown. Earthquakes and volcanic destruction occur on an island. Characters encounter moments of peril on numerous occasions, including being chased by large, threatening creatures.

Sexual Content: A teen girl wears a midriff-baring tank top. A man kisses another on the head, in a non-sexual way, to express his love. A man gives relationship advice to his stepson including a demonstration of the “pec pops” of love (where Dwayne Johnson shows off his pectoral muscles). A teen couple kisses. An adult couple embraces.

Language: Brief mild name-calling is heard along with infrequent references to crude bodily functions

Alcohol / Drug Use: None noted.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island Parents' Guide

Several years ago, Dwayne Johnson made the move from what was then the World Wrestling Federation into acting. And he seems to have come with a natural sense of comedic timing. Do you think Johnson is more suitable for roles in family-friendly films, like this one, or action flicks? Would your significant other be impressed or repulsed by the pec pops of love? What does Sean think about his stepfather’s relationship advice?

Do movies like this encourage children to read Jules Verne’s books? If you are familiar with the stories, how accurately does this film portray the novel’s description of the island?

What attempts does Hank make to connect with his stepson? Why is Sean hesitant to trust Hank’s overtures? What does Grandpa Anderson learn from Hank? Why are Hank and Grandpa so testy with one another when they first meet? Why do you think we are seeing more positive portrayals of father figures in the movies?

Learn more about Jules Verne, the sci-fi author on whose work this movie is based, at this website: href=“http://www.unmuseum.org/verne.htm .

The most recent home video release of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island movie is June 5, 2012. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Release Date: 5 June 2012

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island releases to home video in Blu-ray (Blu-ray/DVD/UV Digital Copy) and 3D (Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/UV Digital Copy). Both packages include the following bonus extras:

- Are You Strong Enough to Survive Mysterious Island

- Deleted Scenes

Related home video titles:

This movie is a sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth . The script makes reference to sci-fi author Jules Verne , whose stories are the inspiration behind Journey to the Center of the Earth (the prequel to this movie), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days (and the remake from 2004 ). The mysterious world they explore is also feature in Atlantis: The Lost Empire . Another woman goes on a quest to find an uncharted location in Nim’s Island .

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

I wish that director Brad Peyton ’s Journey 2: The Mysterious Island had been an amazing adventure film. I also wish that it was so remarkably terrible that it managed to become entertaining. Instead, the movie is set firmly in the middle, neither good nor bad, but also instantly forgettable.

Picking up a while after the events of Journey To The Center of the Earth , the story begins with Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) living the life of a rebel, breaking into local satellite facilities and running from the cops on his motorcycle. While he’s partially doing it to act out against his mother’s new boyfriend, Hank ( Dwayne Johnson , who steps in for Brendan Fraser in the sequel), he’s also on a quest to find his grandfather, the renowned adventurer Alexander Anderson ( Michael Caine ). With some help from Hank, Sean is able to decode a transmission from his grandfather and learns that the legendary Mysterious Island, as written about by Jules Verne, actually exists. Traveling with a helicopter pilot, Gabato (Luis Guzman), and the pilot’s daughter, Kailani ( Vanessa Hudgens ), Hank and Sean travel to the Mysterious Island and have the adventure of a lifetime.

While Journey 2 passes without a central villain – the island itself is really the only thing throwing up roadblocks for the characters – there’s no point where you feel as though the characters are actually being threatened or are in any kind of real danger (and not just because it’s a family film). After arriving on the island, the gang learns that they must leave because the whole thing is sinking into the ocean. But at no point do we ever feel a real time crunch, as the characters immediately figure out how they will get off the island and are constantly stopping to deal with relationship issues between each other (be it Alexander’s dislike of Hank, Sean’s crush on Kailani, or Gabato’s quest to send his daughter to college) and don’t really seem too worried. How stressed about their survival could they be if they are taking breaks to show off “the pec pop of love” and sing “It’s A Wonderful World” around a campfire?

The movie is filled to the brim with CGI, and when you consider how computer technology has advanced in the last decade alone, it actually comes as a surprise how shoddy everything looks. While part of production was on-location in Hawaii, it’s remarkably easy to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not, as all of the fake things in the environment have a strange plastic sheen on them. Also, the giant creatures that the group encounters, including lizards, birds and bees, all look terribly unrealistic, which hurts when the audience is meant to be scared of them. It’s never a good sign when it’s just as easier to imagine the actors running in front of a green screen than them running across the terrain of the Mysterious Island.

It’s quite obvious that Journey 2 is aimed at children, but the result is that adults are going to be stuck bored and rolling their eyes for 94 minutes. The strange pacing will appeal to the shortest of attention spans and the youngest in the crowds likely won’t even recognize how fake the environments are. The film’s humor comes almost exclusively from Luis Guzman, but it’s all so immature (jokes about smelly armpits, lame slapstick humor, etc.) that it will inspire more face-palms than laughs from the grown-up members of the audience. While Johnson is usually a blast to watch – particularly in action films – he’s watered in this title to the point that he’s barely recognizable. It isn’t a bad thing that the movie knows who is going to enjoy the story and who isn’t, but it’s only fair that the parents be warned before entering the theater.

By the end of the year, not only will Brad Peyton’s latest movie not be making my year-end lists, but I may completely forget that I saw it. In fact, it’s a film that is neither entertaining nor terrible enough to remember beyond the five minutes it takes you to exit the local cinema and it’s not going to affect anyone’s career in a significant way. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is a title that just happens to exist.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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