Business rating: 1.5 / 5 stars (One-and-a-half stars)
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Star cast: Dwayne Johnson, Josh Hutcherson, Michael Caine, Luis Guzmán, Vanessa Hudgens.
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What’s Bad: The simplistic storyline; the poor direction.
Verdict: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is an average fare. It will not do much at the Indian box-office.
Loo break: Several.
Watch or Not?: Watch it if your kids insist.
New Line Cinema, Contrafilm, Walden Media and Warner Bros.’ Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is a fantasy adventure.
Seventeen-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island, which is located in a place where no island is known to exist. He thinks, his grandfather, an explorer who has been missing for the past two years, is on the island and is sending him the distress signal. Sean makes up his mind to find the island and his grandfather.
Hank (Dwayne Johnson), Sean’s stepfather, whom the boy doesn’t particularly like, sees an opportunity to bond with his stepson and decides to join him on the adventure. The two proceed to Palau in South Pacific, where they meet a bumbling tour operator, Gabato (Luis Guzmán), and his beautiful daughter, Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens).
After the helicopter, in which they are flying to go to the island, meets with an accident during a storm, the group finds the mysterious island. They discover that the island is a very beautiful place, where elephants are small and butterflies are huge. When they are attacked by a giant lizard which almost gobbles them up, Sean’s grandfather, Alexander (Michael Caine), appears suddenly and saves them. While Hank wants to leave the island with all of them as soon as possible, the others want to stay on and explore.
What happens then? Are the visitors and the explorer able to reach the inner depths of the island? What else do they find? Are they able to get back home safely?
Brian Gunn, Mark Gunn and Richard Outten’s story is ordinary. It is meant more for kids than for adults. The screenplay, penned by Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn, makes the adventure palatable to kids by introducing elements that they would like – giant bees, mountain of gold and a Noah’s ark kind of ship. But in doing so, they dilute it to such an extent that most parts of the film are likely to bore the adults in the audience. The dialogues are average, at best.
Dwayne Johnson does a fair job as the stepfather. Josh Hutcherson is competent. Michael Caine fills the bill. Luis Guzmán brings a smile to the audience’s lips. Vanessa Hudgens looks beautiful. Kristin Davis (as Sean’s mother) and others support well.
Brad Peyton’s direction is poor as he fails in infusing the required zest into the narrative. David Tattersall’s cinematography is alright. The 3D effects are okay. Andrew Lockington’s background score is effective. Production design, by Bill Boes, is excellent. Editing, by David Rennie, could have been better.
On the whole, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is an average fare which will fail to do much business at the box-office in India.
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