Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)

Sean Anderson partners with his mom's husband on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.

Director:

Brad Peyton

Writers:

Brian Gunn (screenplay), Mark Gunn (screenplay),

Stars:

Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dwayne Johnson	...	Hank
Michael Caine	...	Alexander
Josh Hutcherson	...	Sean
Luis Guzmán	...	Gabato
Vanessa Hudgens	...	Kailani
Kristin Davis	...	Liz
Anna Colwell	...	Jessica
Stephen Caudill	...	Cop
Branscombe Richmond	...	Tour Guide
Walter Bankson	...	Hockey Player
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michael Beasley	...	Marcus (scenes deleted)

Storyline

The 17-year-old Sean Anderson receives a coded signal and his stepfather Hank helps him to decipher the message. They find that Sean's grandfather Alexander Anderson has found the mysterious island in the Pacific described by Jules Verne and two other writers in their novels. The stubborn Sean wants to travel to the coordinates and Hank decides to buy the tickets and travel with the teenager to a small island nearby the location. They rent an old helicopter owned by the locals Gabato and his teenage daughter Kailani and the group heads to the unknown spot. Along their journey, they cross a hurricane and crash in the island. They find a beautiful and dangerous place, surrounded by forests, volcanoes with lava of gold and menacing life forms. The meet also the old Alexander and Hank discovers that the island is sinking. Now their only chance to survive is to find the legendary Nautilus.

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Plot Keywords:

island | mysterious island | teenager | mexican | campfire | 

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Taglines:

Believe the impossible. Discover the incredible.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some adventure action, and brief mild language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 February 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Journey to the Center of the Earth Sequel

Filming Locations:

Waimea Bay, Waimea Bay Beach Park, O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$79,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$27,335,363 (USA) (10 February 2012)

Gross:

$103,812,241 (USA) (22 June 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Contrafilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There is another Jules Verne novel entitled "The Golden Volcano", which - although is set in the Canadian Arctic during the gold rush - spews gold nuggets when it erupts. This is likely where the mountains of gold came from for this movie.

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Goofs

When the gang is riding the giant bees, Sean identifies the birds chasing them as "white-throated needletails," which is a species of swift. On the contrary, the birds featured appear to be white-fronted bee-eaters, which are in no way related to or resembling needletails.

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Quotes

Alexander: [On Sean's sprained ankle] On three. One...
[Pops ankle back]
Hank: What happened to two and three?
Sean: Yes, what happened to two and three?
Alexander: Two. Three.

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Crazy Credits

There is a brief scene halfway through the credits right before the cast listing.

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Connections

References Godzilla (1954)

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Soundtracks

"What A Wonderful World"
Performed by Dwayne Johnson
Written by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss
Produced by William Ross
Arranged by William Ross and Chris Walden

User Reviews

Nice 3D and CGI. Awful characters to take a Journey with.

"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" is a blue-screen CGI extravaganza that is mixed in with the picturesque Hawaii locations, but containing a plot that is essentially all told in the trailer and presented with the dynamics of an amusement park tour. The "2" in "Journey 2" is because it is the sequel to the 2008 movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth"; the "The Mysterious Island" in the title because both movies are both derived from books by Jules Verne.

Watching "Journey 2" is like being stuck in a vacation with five slightly unpleasant people with slightly uncomfortable dynamics between. Sean (Hutcherson) is bratty and overly entitled, Hank (Johnson) his stepfather and Alexander (Caine) his grandfather are constantly bickering, the tour guide Gabato (Guzman) is overly emasculated and his daughter Kailani (Hudgens) surly.

The 3D, the CGI of the island and the sets are perhaps main draw of the movie. We see elephants as big as cats and bees as big as cars. The effects are mostly impressive all around but it never manages to find the right pace or impact because it just comes in one after another without the dramatic tension. It's hard to care about the perils or be in awe at what's shown when the characters are so thin.

After watching the movie, I get this feeling that the Rock had way too much creative input in the movie. His absurd peck joke from the trailer aside, his character is a prize-winning Navy cryptographer who also knows structural engineering and who can also play a mean ukulele and really hold down a tune (although awful singing truth be told); This all hints at the big guy pretending to be smart and sensitive. Combine this with the almost palpable resentment between him and Caine and the sickening obsequiousness of Guzman towards him, it just feels uncomfortable.

While the movie is impressive as a 3D CGI set piece, it is severely let down by the characters. A lot of kids/family movies lately have this undertone of spoiled rich American kid gets everything he wants but this movie does this in a very ugly way. Kids will overlook all these flaws in the movie and be mesmerized by the 3D and special effects but I think adults would find it a bit pointless and uncomfortable. Empty entertainment for kids is my view of this movie.