Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 125
Fresh: 52 | Rotten: 73
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.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 21
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.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 205,416
My Rating
Movie Info
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 young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) 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
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Cast
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Hank, Hank Parsons -
Michael Caine
Alexander, Grandfather -
Josh Hutcherson
Sean, Sean Anderson -
Luis Guzman
Gabato -
Vanessa Hudgens
Kailani -
Kristin Davis
Liz, Liz Anderson -
Anna Colwell
Jessica -
Stephen Caudill
Cop -
Branscombe Richmond
Tour Guide -
Walker Bankson
Hockey Player -
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All Critics (126) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (75) | DVD (8)
Surely the silliest outing for Caine since he swatted rampaging killer bees in the 1978 disaster flick "The Swarm."
Top CriticOffers giant rocks clearly made of Styrofoam and Dwayne Johnson, who fits the same description.
I swear some of the giant, Day-Glo vegetation had "Property of 'Lost in Space'" stamped on it.
The equivalent of those pre-made sandwiches you buy at Starbucks -- not bad for you, and not entirely lacking in flavor, but nothing particularly memorable, either.
The equivalent of throwing "Jurassic Park," "Avatar" and the absolute worst episode ever of "Land of the Lost" in a blender and pushing "garble."
The Mysterious Island is everything a 12-year-old boy could want - endless adventure involving a reckless adolescent hero, with a pretty girl in a clinging T-shirt around to watch him struggle.
As silly and childish as you might expect, but Johnson ensures that it's watchable through presence and charm alone.
"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is light, airy family entertainment that actually ends up being too light and airy.
It's a harmless, lighthearted film with wooden acting, a nice message about accepting your parents-whoever they are-and again, lots of ridiculous CGI.
The only defense for this movie is to say that it's not actually 'trying' to be good ... Are we supposed to applaud just because they set the bar low and barely reached it?
It definitely has its appeal to the crowd it's pandering toward, and it's a success in its mission to bring the awe and thrills.
But Journey 2 delivers a flashy and eye opening adventure product, with each cast member stepping forward to steal particular scenes.
The whole movie has such an air of giddy adventure that I had a good time with it. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is charming, in spite of its imperfections.
Visually rich with lavish sets and fun movie monsters, but Journey 2 is about as underdeveloped and hollow as assembly-line filmmaking can get.
Fans of intelligent family filmmaking will want to skip this vapid CGI-fest.
...the group of people at the center of the story are the least-appealing folks you'd ever want to be stuck with on a deserted island. (Blu-ray Combo Pack)
...a family adventure aimed squarely at children. For kids, it's fine; they'll probably enjoy all the color, action, and preposterous goings-on.
Panders to the kiddies, caters to the teens, and tosses in a loser-ethnic-sidekick. The shrugging tone of this 21st-century sabotage of the original novel is summed up by this slogan masquerading as dialogue: 'It's Jules Verne, man-ya gotta believe.'
Falls far short of cinematic art but goes down pretty well with a box of popcorn and modest expectations.
Amusingly childish...
Feeding this to a young mind should count as a chargable offense.
It's all a bit silly. But Journey 2 does have the uncomplicated charm of those ancient mid-budget epics in which Doug McClure narrowly avoided being eaten by Pterodactyls.
Utterly disposable and -- apart from Dwayne Johnson's 'pec pop of love' -- almost immediately forgettable.
Silly, colorful, harmless and fun.
The visual effects are as artificial as the genially preposterous story, but the movie is all in fun, and painless for grownups.
It lost me at the bees. 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island' is kinda/sorta based on the writings of Jules Verne, in a similar vein as its predecessor, 'Journey to the Center of the Earth.'
Audience Reviews for Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
As I remember it was a little funny and entertaining enough. I liked some of the actor's so that helped. I think it was a bit on the cheesy side. But still tolerable. This is good for the kids. They enjoyed it much more than I did which is understandable since it speaks their language of cheese.
Something I wouldn't watch again but probably will. It's what happens when you have a child. Not always a blessing is it, when you have to sit through horrid films numerous times. LOL Of course I'm kidding... their all blessings.... lol
Super Reviewer
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- Sean: Now what?
- Hank: There's only one thing left. The Thunder Cookie.
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- Alexander: How do you like grandma now?
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- Sean: I've got something. What about the Nautilus?
- Gabato: How is an exercise machine gonna help us get out of here?
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- Hank: This chopper's not gonna work out.
- Sean: You know what, Hank, the more I look at it, this helicopter's pretty freaking gorgeous.
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- Sean: What do you like doing on weekends?
- Kailani: Collect and label mollusks.
- Sean: No way! Me too. I'm way into mollusks.
- Kailani: Really?
- Sean: Yeah.
- Kailani: Well, which one's your favorite? Mine's the Mxyzptlk snail.
- Sean: You're not gonna believe me, but that's my favorite too.
- Kailani: I just made that up. Mxyzptlk isn't a snail. It's one of Superman's archenemies.
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- Hank: I know what the book says. You wanted to find the Mysterious Island. Mission accomplished. You wanted to find your grandmother, there she is. Mission accomplished.
Discussion Forum
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Latest News on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
March 9, 2012:
Dwayne Johnson in Talks for Journey 3He misses the giant bees.
March 7, 2012:
Yep, There's Another Journey in the WorksThe creative team behind "Journey 2" is in talks to return for the threequel.
February 10, 2012:
Critics Consensus: Journey 2 Isn't Quite Worth the TripThis week in multiplexes, "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" gets a deluxe 3d rerelease, but...
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Foreign Titles
- Die Reise zur geheimnisvollen Insel (DE)
- Voyage au centre de la Terre 2 : L'île mystérieuse (FR)
Story of this film is loosely based on film Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was released on 2008. That film was action packed, silly and in the end surprisingly entertaining hour and a half. That is what Journey 2 also delivers. It has fast pace, thrilling action and enough wonder to keep whole family entertained. Sure, all the characters are more or less caricatures and only Josh Hutcherson, returning from the first film, manages to deliver something a bit meatier as a character than rest of the bunch. This is a film made for entertain audiences, not some high art and as a entertainment it mostly succeeds.
We need these old fashioned adventure films that has that 50's vibe in them. For cynical people this film certainly ain't but those willing to dive into it's imagination land are in for a thrilling adventure. Recommended as a family entertainment.