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JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH ****

Journey in 3-D like it's 1959!

Sunday July 13,2008

By Allan Hunter

ACCORDING to Hollywood, digital 3-D movies are the next big thing. The process certainly adds some extra fun to Journey To The Center Of The Earth, an otherwise routine reworking of the Jules Verne novel.

As killer fish land in your lap and star Brendan Fraser spits in your eye, the 3-D can’t help but feel like a gimmick, although the special specs are much improved these days and at least you don’t wind up with a blinding headache.

The affable Fraser is college professor Trevor Anderson, an expert in plate tectonics (don’t ask). Being lumbered with 13-year-old nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) for 10 days is not his idea of a good time.

Seeking common ground, they rummage through some of the research belonging to Sean’s late father who believed that Jules Verne wrote science fact rather than science fiction. Soon they’ve spotted exceptional tectonic activity (I said don’t ask) and are hot-footing it to Iceland, where Hannah (Anita Briem) becomes their guide to a world within a world where dinosaurs still roam and a luminous bluebird lights the way to freedom.

A family-friendly adventure, Journey often feels more like a theme-park ride as we hurtle from cliffhanging peril to death-defying escape via carnivorous plants, runaway railway stock and blistering heat. Everything is resolved so quickly that there is little sense of real danger but it passes muster as a summer matinee, even if us grown-ups will always prefer the 1959 version with the incomparable James Mason.

(Cert PG; 92 mins)