Journey 2: The Mysterious Island Reviews

A harmless family-film that actually delivers nice and innovative adventure with great deal of Jules Verne thrown in it. While Journey 2: The Mysterious Island offers nothing particulary special or new it still definetly delivers as a well made and old fashoined adventure film.
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.

"I watched this movie some time ago but forgot to write my thoughts about it down. So I thought I would do so before I forget again. I guess me forgetting isn't really a good sign for the movie.

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

A sequel to "Journey to the Center of the Earth", this time is an adventure to the mysterious island. Josh Hutcherson is back as Sean and this time The Rock stars as his step father Hank. Hank wants desperately to form a bond with Sean, and teach him responsibility When Sean receives a distress signal from his grandfather(Michael Caine) he and Hank set off on a Journey to find the mysterious island in the pacific ocean. Great special effects(didn't watch in 3D like the movie is intended to be seen, but it still works fine in 2D) and a decent story. The performances are good, and honestly, you don't miss Brendan Fraser at all(he starred in the first movie). The Rock has been saving franchises as of late("G.I. Joe" and "Fast Five"), and here he has done the same thing. They have an ending open for another one, I would definitely check it out. Kids will love the flying bees and giant lizards, and the parents will love the humor(peck pop of love, anyone?") and good step-father/step-son storyline. Good, solid family adventure movie.

Believe the impossible. Discover the incredible.

Good family movie! It's not a movie that would rock your world , you will be able to predict some of the crucial parts but on the other hand this is a movie that's also fun to watch for children so its understandable that the story couldn't been that complicated. If you have small children i would advise to go and watch this movie , but this doesn't means that it's not suitable for adults.

17-year-old Sean Anderson receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. Unable to stop tracking the signal, he sets out with a small group on a journey to the mysterious island - a place few people have ever seen or lived to tell about. What they find is an island of stunning beauty, strange and threatening life forms, volcanoes, mountains of gold and more than one astonishing secret.

This fails to meet the basic requirements of a film. There is no story, merely a succession of "giant" events. First a giant lizard chases them, then they're riding giant bees bareback, now they're being chased by giant birds, later they're almost killed by a giant electric eel. For an encore we get a giant spider just as a freak storm appears as a volcano is erupting. All the special effects in the world are not a compensation for an exciting plot. This is a collection of action set pieces that should ultimately inspire the inevitable ride at a theme park. In an early scene Hank helps his stepson Sean decipher the code of literary characters which leads to three books; Treasure Island, Gulliver's Travels and Mysterious Island. There is but a small outside chance that this movie might encourage a child to pick up one of those books and actually read it. For that, I'll give this 2 stars.

A spectacular action-packed adventure for the entire family. It`s a winning and epic joy-ride filled with comedy, action, great special effects and alot of heart. It`s a roller-coaster ride of pure fun and thrills from start to finish and just keeps getting better. It`s way better than the original. A wonderful and exciting movie. A great all-star cast, they are clearly having a fantastic time. Dwayne Johnson is excellent, giving off plenty of charm and humor. Josh Hutchenson is terrific. Michael Caine is brilliant. Luis Guzman is hilarious. Vanessa Hudgens is wonderful. This is one wickedly enjoyable and tremendously entertaining adventure that you cant help but love. I found myself surprised that i enjoyed it this much. Family films dont get more exciting or entertaining than this.

Let me start off by saying, "Journey 2" is not something I would normally subject myself to. It is difficult to find a movie appropriate for little kids, in a town that is only showing 3 movies. If it had been a week later, we could have seen "The Lorax", instead we were forced to endure the brutally uninspired, "Journey 2". I went into the film with very low expectations, and I still left the theater offended. That's saying something. The story is entirely forgettable and the action sequences are so lame, that they could be compared to poor movies from 20 years ago like, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids". The dialogue is ridiculously contrived and might as well been delivered by cardboard cutouts, since there wasn't any acting going on. This was me trying something different, and inevitably hating it. The most memorable thing I'll take from this movie, is that apparently, it is acceptable to bring your pets to movie theaters in North Dakota. Hmm. What the was Journey 1? Oh, who cares?

Very enjoyable adventure, based on the famous novel by Jules Verne, which was first published in 1874. This modern take on the story, features a troubled teenager (played by Josh Hutcherson, who reprises his role as Sean Anderson from "Journey to the Center of the Earth"), who receives a cryptic radio message from his grandfather, which leads him on a dangerous quest to find a mysterious island, which had previously been thought to be a mere place of legend.

Those unititated to Verne's tales may dismiss this as a knock-off on films like "Jurassic Park" and "King Kong", but that would hardly be fair as it's probably the latter that has been inspired by Verne's original work. But yes, it is clichéd and treads on familiar ground. That doesn't mean it can't be fun though, and compared to "Center of the Earth", I found this a notable improvement, with greater pacing, excitement and a more likeable cast.

Michael Caine as Sean's grandfather, is excellent as ever, adding his usual charm and and energy to the story. Particularily in his amusing interplay with Sean's stepdad Hank, who is solidly played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzmán are fairly amiable as well, though they add the least to the overall appeal of the film.

What makes it a pleasant ride, besides the nice visual elements and good doses of humor, is the island itself and all its strange and wonderful creatures. What's big in our world is small in theirs, and vice versa. A lush, colorful and paradise-like place, that hosts everything from gigantic bumblebees to miniature-sized elephants. A little uneven in the quality of the CGI, but neat nevertheless.

All in all, a worthy adaptation of Verne's original adventure. A movie for those who enjoy lighthearted, family-friendly escapist fare, but isn't too choosy about the writing or credibility of the plot. Goes well together with some popcorn and an open-minded attitude. Just watch it as your inner child would and you'll be amazed at how fast its 90 minutes fly by!

Similar to National Treasure but not as well done. I really liked the adventure and mystery aspect of it, as in the figuring out what everything meant and how to get back however I wasn't really interested. Caine was the best part of this but even he couldn't save the appalling performance of The Rock. I haven't seen the first film but I'm not sure that would help too much. Great visuals though!

Well considering I was going to watch it with low expectations and didn't really go to see it for myself, I went into the cinema with an open mind. But I was still let down. It reminded me of a B movie (the bad kind) but with a mega budget. Even Michael Caine wasn't that great. It doesn't live up to it's title and the characters aren't in the slightest, likable. It was not without it's charm and the very young hearted will love it, guaranteed. Amazing CGI but to be honest, I could have written a better script.

This is one of the most unnecessary sequels I have seen in a long time, but oddly enough, it's a very fun film. The first film follows Sean (Josh Hutcherson) as he and his uncle discover the centre of the earth. In this sequel, he discovers that his grandfather has sent him secret coding from "The Mysterious Island" that he has discovered many years ago. He and his new step-father, along with a couple others, enter the mysterious island, from then on, it's ridiculous, stupid, and sloppy, but the characters are funny, and the journey is very very fun. "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is another one of the those sequels that you will not remember once the year ends, but for a dead season of movies, it was a very fun ride to take in 3D. Sure Vanessa Hudgens is a horrible actress, the CGI is gross, and the dialogue is poorly written, but what do you honestly expect from a family adventure film these days. This is pure B-level entertainment and nothing more. It was a fun time!

The first movie offered a lot of fun while I'm watching it so when I know there's a sequel for 'Journey to the Center of the Earth', I expecting that the sequel will at least offers the same fun as the first movie offered while I'm watching it.. But after 90 minutes watching this movie, I must say that this one is a pretty disappointing sequel.. I'm not saying that the effects were sucks, IMO it's great but not that awesome.. And also as I watch this movie in 3D, I gave a little extra credit for making pretty awesome 3D movie (for your record I didn't watch the first movie in 3D but it amazed me).. Perhaps they should allocating the budget for the special effects to hire a better scriptwriter because the story in this movie kinda suck.. If they can hire a better scriptwriter, with the help of the effects, I'm pretty sure that this movie would be pretty awesome.. And for the cast, since only Josh Hutcherson whom is back from the first movie, I can only say the cast name did impress me but the cast performances did not impress me.. And as for Dwayne Johson, c'mon with that big build body you can get a lot of better role rather than a family comedy movie like this one and please please please stop exposed your "breast dance" cause it's been played in a lot of a movie of yours even though somehow I still caught a little laugh while watching it.. Some scenes probably stole my laugh, but the whole movie did not entertain me as well as the first movie..

Slightly silly title but if your unaware this is the sequel to the 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' remake starring Brendan Fraser. Pretty much the same thing accept swap Fraser with Dwayne Johnson playing Hutcherson's stepfather for this adventure.

Lots of the expected really, you can't really fail to know what your gonna see here, big bugs, volcanoes, sea beasties, lost gold, deep thick jungles and Michael Caine playing your typical bearded oldboy intrepid adventurer...think along the lines of Connery in 'The Last Crusade'.

Despite that it is good fun if you enjoy light hearted fantasy much like the original 'Centre of the Earth' film. It is of course totally daft how Johnson and Hutcherson know how to pilot Captain Nemo's Nautilus, hijack large bumblebees and ride them like 'speeder bikes' and Johnson throwing a spear underwater but hey!...you overlook these things.

Enjoyable stuff and hopefully a third on the way, maybe a little less focus on Johnson though this time, he's admittedly a funny guy but boy does he love being the centre of attention.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island seems like its trying to be pure fun, but the script makes it seem too juvenile for adults, and maybe even boring for some kids. It has all good intentions, all its just trying to be an adventure film that will make some money, but it's crushed by a dull script and special effects that make it too much like a animated TV show. One thing I enjoy about this sequel was that the characters interacted more, while in the first film all they did was start to like each other because they survived a monster attack or something. I must admit, I went into this film having very low expectations because any film with the Rock and Vanessa Hudgens couldn't be anything of true genius, so that might've affected my feelings but I must admit I was expecting something much worse. You get what you paid for, a kids film with cartoonish adveture scenes and special effects that will bore the older audience.

The story follows Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) who 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.

The plot seemed like a huge remake of Land of the Lost, and I did not enjoy that. I like seeing a movie and feeling like I have never seen it before, unless its suppose to be a remake, and trust me this film is a remake with a different name and new characters. I was also not a big fan of the characters either, they seemed really childish and everyone just did nothing to make them memorable at all. I will admit however, I enjoyed the relationship between the characters played by Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson, because it gave them the only sense of humanity I felt they had left. Other than that, this film consists of monster chases, volcanic eruptions, and anything that will get the producers a lot of money. I was bored during the film, and if they hadn't followed the same adventure film cliches and given the characters more interesting characteristics, I might've enjoyed it more.

The cast was just pathetic, and when I say that I mean why is Dwayne Johnson still doing kids movies like this? I thought we established his career was going good after Fast Five, and now he is playing his usual daddy performance that I did not find thrilling. Josh Hutcherson played some little smartass teenager who loves science and this hot girl, a combination that made him a bit annoying. But he has The Hunger Games to fall back on so who cares. Vanessa Hudgens just needs to stop, she is only in this as a love interest, and this just makes me angry. Luis Guzman was the worst actor of the film, not only was he annoying and dull, his character was just here for comic relief and they didn't even do it well. Michael Caine really didn't have much to go on, so I couldn't really say he was bad, just nothing special. Overall the cast was the thing that made me not want to see the film in the first place, and my premonition came true, their acting stunk.

Journey 2: the Mysterious Island had some good things about it, such as the monster chases will be enjoyable to a lot of people, and the sub plot with the step father and son really touched me. But sadly whenever monsters aren't chasing them, the special effects were looking so cartoonish that it pulled me away and made me feel like I was watching some cheap show on Nickelodeon. I think the biggest problem of the film however, was that it has that same cliche adventure film formula that makes me so mad because the film makers know they are doing it, and just don't care. If they ever make a second sequel to the series, I sure hope they can fix what I saw in this film, because this movie wasn't even worth showing your children.

was expecting a bit more, was decent, but nothing that special. Did I mention, I'm getting really sick of every movie based entirely upon 3D? yes.

2008's Journey to the Center of the Earth was one of the first films to hop onto the contemporary 3D movie bandwagon, and its sequel refines the family adventure flick formula the first one slavishly adhered to. Journey 2 is plasticky, silly and has a sort of theme park artificiality to it, but somehow that's all part of its charm. The movie mainly suffers from a case of "nothingspecialitis", but what little it has to offer is really not too bad. Dwayne Johnson is considerably better than Brendan Fraser was in the first film, and he's genuinely funny and likable here - in between bouncing berries off his pectoral muscles and playing the ukelele by a campfire, he handles the action beats as well as he should. Bonus points for being a very articulate action star when compared to the likes of Schwarzenegger, Van Damme and Stallone. Michael Caine steals the show and he's one of those great actors who visibly has a lot of fun when he's in lesser films, and nobody can blame him for that. Vanessa Hudgens' archetypal strong-willed, beautiful lass serves only to provide limited amounts of eye candy for male viewers and perhaps as a gateway to adolescence in the vein of Princess Leia for many a young audience member - but other than that borders on grating. Josh Hutcherson is actually a pretty good actor, despite the contrived stepdaddy issues the script saddles his character with. The production design shines in certain spots - both the palatial interior and steampunk exterior of the Nautilus look great and while the CGI certainly isn't as good as what audiences have become used to, it does do the job. Best of all, it's an action-adventure movie families can thoroughly enjoy without worrying about gratuitous violence, profanity or sexuality - Vanessa Hudgens' cleavage notwithstanding.

Set in a land abounding with Lilliputian elephants, Brobdingnagian lizards, blindingly coruscating sea serpents and gold-spewing volcanoes, "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" exhibits a visual gasconade of rather derivative, technologically spawned fauna and suscitates rare instances of engaging conflicts with the film`s characters, which ultimately renders the arcane and supposedly perilous exploration an innocuous sightseeing experience. In comparison to its previous installment, "Journey to the Center of the Earth", the second one benefits from Dwayne Johnson`s rather risible facetiousness but suffers from an ephemerality of suspenseful chases and from a dearth of clever, screen-protruding scenes made possible by the film`s 3D component. The storyline itself fails to incorporate any new thrills given its harmlessly hackneyed three-step approach of finding the enigmatical territory, exploring its content and escaping from it unscathed. Overall, "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is a harmless touristic stroll across an intricately designed environment of bizarreness.

This film took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting much from watching the trailer, but I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the movie. These Journey films are really well made for 3D and worth seeing in 3D. Both films feel like an amusement park ride and try to get the audience involved. Brendan Fraser made a mistake not returning for the sequel.

Dwayne does a great job stepping in to headline the new installment in this franchise. I thought he was better here than to Race to Witch Mountain or the Tooth Fairy. Josh Hutcherson is the only cast member from the original who returned for the sequel. Josh does a good job here. He has a great on screen chemistry with Vanessa Hudgens. Luis Guzman is hilarious in the film. Michael Caine steals almost every scene that he is in.

I think for the 3rd film, they should team Dwayne with Brendan on a new adventure. I definitely recommend this film.

This was actually a fun film, by no means once so ever a good film, but I had some enjoyment watching. I mean "The Rock", Guzman, and Caine on the screen does equate to some good moments. The CGI had flaws for the high budget, and the slow-mo sucked. I mean they put it so often and in unnecessary
moments. The direction was poor, and some scenes (like the lizard eggs scene) made no sense at all. I tried ignoring the cheesiness, but it's overwhelming. It had it's moments, and I'm sure the kids will like it enough, but in technical measures it's crap