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"Journey to the Center of the Earth" star Brendan Fraser says he loves watching kids at preview screenings reach out to touch the lifelike 3-D images.
I report this as a heads-up to fathers who accompany their children to the 3-D "Earth," whose images are indeed convincingly close at hand, lest dad be caught reaching out to touch actress Anita Briem.
That could make for a long car ride home.
Remember, dad, every journey to the center of the earth has a dinosaur, and also a fox - here, it's Briem as the Icelandic climber who leads scientist Fraser and his surly nephew (Josh Hutcherson) to an abandoned mine that's also a portal to a lost, prehistoric world deep beneath the earth's surface.
Briem's the smartly updated, athletic version of the old B-movie bombshell (buxom, not too bright, tethered to a safety rope). In a shrewd twist, Briem is the coolly competent expedition leader who guides Fraser's lab-bound scientist and his greenhorn relative on the perilous journey to the earth's core.
Where they encounter standard, center-of-the-earth fare: the T-Rex, the gigantic fly traps, phosphorescent creatures and the like.
On this journey, though, the medium is the message.
Hollywood has created a new generation of 3-D cameras and related projection equipment (even the sturdy new glasses are improved), and "Journey" is the first movie to fully use it.
You get the same old corny tricks - the yo-yo in the face, for instance - but improved technology gives the gimmick fresh bite. (The movie is also being exhibited widely in conventional 2-D, so check your local listings.)
Not everything works. An extended bit about toothy flying fish goes on too long and looks more obviously computer-generated than the rest of the stuff.
Variability is to be expected. Directors, photographers and animators are still getting a feel for what works, so you get the hits as well as the misses.
Some of the more effective shots, for instance, explore the back of the screen, rather than the front. 3-D movies want to wave objects in your fact, but there are some nice shots here of tiny human figures in a large, cavernous landscape - shots that really drive home the depth that these new cameras capture.
Meanwhile, the underlying story is short, sweet and frequently smart. It pays tribute to source author Jules Verne, salvaging the best stuff and adding a layer of contemporary science. (There's a bit about awesome cell phone reception that's meant as a joke.)
Even without the 3-D, it's a fast-moving, old-fashioned boys' adventure romp, built for short attention spans and maximum popcorn consumption. *
Produced by Charlotte Huggins, Beau Flynn, directed by Eric Brevig, written by Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, distributed by New Line Cinema.
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