Movie Review – Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Out this week is the new Brendan Fraser vehicle – “Journey to the Centre of the Earth”, a film that attempts to update the classic Jules Verne novel by placing the story in the 21st century and using the latest 3-D digital effects.  For Brendan Fraser fans this movie whets the appetite before the latest “Mummy” movie is released later on this Summer.  Fraser seems to be in danger of becoming typecast as the macho, “laugh in the face of danger”, action hero as he basically reprises his “Mummy” role in this Eric Brevig directed adventure.

“Journey to the Centre of the Earth”

Playing a Professor who along with his nephew (played by Josh Hutcherson), the inevitable child sidekick, and the film love interest Anita Briem, our hero travels to Iceland to find out what has happened to his brother (the father of Sean, the character played by Josh Hutcherson).

Falling through a convenient volcanic fissure, the brave band find themselves in a lost, underground world and that the novel penned by Verne is not a work of fiction at all but a factual account.  Naturally, they have to battle all sorts of creatures and survive various scrapes in order to get themselves back to the surface.

The film is short on plot (no real explanation is given as to how the Verne novel has been transferred to modern times), and long on special, digital effects.  It is almost if the film itself is swamped by the need to show off the 3-D technology, for example does the audience need to be treated to Brendan Fraser rinsing and spitting water on them.

“Voyage au Centre de la Terre”

The original novel (published in 1864, in French as “Voyage au Centre de la Terre), was based on a published scientific text, and at the time little was known about the properties of the Earth’s crust, mantle and core.  These days the emphasis is on adventure and the special effects.  Having watched the film it is possible to imagine a theme park ride being created to entertain tourists at one of the many resorts in the USA.  Indeed, one is left with the feeling that the movie may have been written especially to accommodate the technical requirements of a theme park attraction.

Dinosaurs make an appearance, along with ferocious flying piranha fish, birds that glow and strange floating rocks.  The tyrannosaur chase scene is a little reminiscent of many of the T. rex scenes in films such as Jurassic Park 1 and 2, we have sort of seen this all before but at least the 3-D adds a new dimension (no pun intended).

Professor Anderson (Fraser’s character) is asked in mid chase “haven’t you ever seen a dinosaur before”, in the typical understated tones of our action hero he replies “yes, but never one with its skin on”!  The trouble is we have all seen CGI dinosaurs before and much of the spectacle is lost as the characters are hurled from one predicament to the next.  It is all good, wholesome family fun, although it does contain one or two scary moments that might upset very young children (hence the PG rating).

Fine film to view on a Summer afternoon, a reasonable way to entertain the children for a few hours over the long summer break, but if they want real excitement and adventure, try the original Verne novels – much more enthralling.

Visit the website of Everything Dinosaur: Everything Dinosaur.

10,000 B. C. Movie Review

Director Roland Emmerich is well known for big, block buster type movies such as “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow” but on this occasion he takes the viewer back in time, in a bid to tell a tale from prehistory.

10,000 B.C.

A fur adorned mountain tribe, happily living out their lives believing that the Woolly Mammoth herds are the centre of the universe, is raided by brutal warlords looking for slaves to help them build a temple to their God.  Our hero, a young hunter called D’Leh (played by American actor Steven Strait) sees his love Evolet (Camilla Belle) carried away and so he sets out to rescue her.

Along the way he encounters all manner of strange tribes, most of which have a grudge against the slave warlords as they too have been raided.  What starts off as one man’s quest to find his girl ends up being a sort of crusade against the tyranny of the evil warlord empire and their pyramid temples.  As D’Leh wanders through strange deserts and jungles in search of Evolet his small band of followers swells and grows to become an army – just what you need if you are going to have a final showdown with the bad guys.

If you put aside for one moment the historical inaccuracies, the absurd geography (we think much of the film was shot in Namibia as well as New Zealand so in essence our heroes were heading in the wrong direction), and the out of proportion prehistoric animals depicted, then this is a fairly pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

The story is not exactly subtle or complicated (unless you count the bizarre ancient prophesies) but as this film is aimed at a pre-teen audience then it hits all the right buttons.  Plenty of action, not a lot of dialogue or plot and some interesting special effects.  Any film with CGI Mammoths can’t be all that bad, and the 12A rating permits youngsters to watch (accompanied by an adult).  The narration got a little iritating at times, what was Omar Sharif thinking!

Absolute hokum, but if you have nothing better to do on a wet March afternoon…

Some points about the prehistoric animals – the Terror Birds (Phorusrhacidae) survived in South America until about 5,000 years ago but we are not sure what evidence there is for these large, flightless birds surviving in the Old World into the Pleistocene/Holocene (we think there is none).

The Sabre-tooth cat has been given the typical markings of an ambush killer and these animals although associated with the Americas (where the last Sabre-tooths lived), they were more widespread in earlier times.   Our allegedly Palaeolithic hunter might have encountered big cats, but it is highly unlikely that one of them would have been a Smilodon.

A Smilodon Makes an Appearance in the Film

A close-up of the head of the Rebor Smilodon populator figure (mouth open head attachment). The exquisite detailing or the teeth and the inside of the mouth can be clearly seen. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The picture (above) shows a Rebor Smilodon 1:11 scale figure.

To view the Rebor range of models and figures: Rebor Models and Figures.

Sabre-Toothed Cat

The Sabre-tooth cat depicted in the film is truly huge, far larger than the Pleistocene Sabre-tooths.  Most of the large Sabre-tooth cats were about the size of a modern lion (P. leo) although much more stocky and heavy set.  The largest of the last Smilodon species was S. populator of South America.  It would have stood about 1.2 metres high at the shoulder.  We think the CGI operators have used a little bit of licence when it comes to the scale of some of these people.

It might be that the people depicted in the film are actually very small, this could be why some of these animals look so big.  If that is the case then this too is historically inaccurate, there is some evidence to suggest that Stone Age people were actually a fraction taller than their modern counterparts.

Zodiac – A Film Review

This film was directed by David Fincher, whose only other film I have seen is Seven.  It is based on the true story of the hunt for a serial killer who terrorised California in the late 1960s and remained notorious and at large for many years.  The Zodiac is not the central character in this story, the film portrays the obsession of individuals who set out to prove the identity of the killer.

Specifically the film focuses on the preoccupation of a newspaper cartoonist and his desire to find the Zodiac, at the cost of his family and his job.  I think this character is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, although for me it is Robert Downey Jr who steals most of the scenes with his portrayal of a drunken, hack and his fall from grace into despair and loneliness.

Zodiac – A Film Review

The crimes were committed when forensic science was in its infancy, there are few clues to go on and the lack of a co-ordinated police effort hampers the pursuit of the perpetrator.  At various points in the film, you are given the impression that the net is closing in but each time the investigations lead you up a blind alley.  To this end the film was a little frustrating, it lacked the clean, no fuss storyline of a CSI TV episode, but I guess that was the point.  Real life crime is nothing like television and this film depicted the hunt for the killer with a degree of realism.

The Californian police are not like Mounties – they don’t always get their man.  The main detective on the case reminded me of Columbo, perhaps a deliberate attempt by the Director to contrast the police investigation in this movie with the more predictable denouement associated with the standard fayre on TV.

The film certainly had me interested, not fascinated but interested enough not to notice that the best part of 160 minutes had passed before the lights came up.

Overall, an OK way to spend an afternoon, but not enough dinosaurs for my liking.

For dinosaur themed gifts and toys: Everything Dinosaur.

As we start to get ready for Christmas – I know we are only in September, but we have to start thinking of increasing stocks, not only of models, soft toys, dinosaurs to make and build, dinosaurs to paint, and dinosaur games (we think the new dino-opoly game is going to be very popular this year), we also have to start stocking up on packaging – boxes, padded envelopes and postal tubes for posters and gift wrap.  We also start to take bookings from schools and nurseries to attend their Christmas fairs (which we do locally).

We therefore take every opportunity possible to take time out and do something different.  This weekend we got the chance to go a local film theatre in Stoke, and see a film we have been trying to get to all summer – “Tell No One”.

The film is based on Harlen Cobens multi-million selling novel, and is in French with subtitles – but do not let this put you off!  The plot concerns a doctor (Francois Cluzet) as the wronged man, who while at work one day receives an e-mail from his wife who was murdered eight years ago!

There is plenty of tension and action as the film unfolds, the chase scene on foot across the city is excellent, and you piece together what is happening from small scraps of information throughtout the film, but the reveal in the end brings it all together.

It stars Francois Cluzet, Marie Josee Croze, Andre Dussollier and Kristen Scott Thomas.  The intimacy of a small 200 seater cinema is certainly different from the usual multi nationals, and definitely something we would do again.