(Note that there are two movies out right now with the same name. The other Journey is getting much better reviews. This is a review of the one starring Greg Evigan, not the one starring Brendon Fraser.) It seems that parts of this movie made a major effort toward producing a film that was passably entertaining and well thought out. But these were juxtaposed with segments which were full of nonsensical dialog, unrealistic actions, and atrocious acting. The end result is a bit schizoid, and could never be called a good movie though I wouldn't quite pan it to a 1.
Any attempt at a plot which involves people visiting a world deep underground has a major uphill haul to get the audience to suspend disbelief. This movie is neither better nor worse than others using the plot formula and in fact is quite a bit better than the utterly preposterous "The Core". At least Journey tries in that regard.
But there are jarringly disappointing elements as well. The acting, particularly of Mr. Evigan, is stunningly bad. He seems more like a frat boy who never matured than a project director. One of the key techs (and there are only a handful of them) looks like central casting sent over a stereotype Goth, not a stereotype Geologist. The "soldiers" are all minor babes who spend as much time fighting over trivia as cooperating as a team. The glowering general in nondescript dress is so stereotyped as to be inadvertent comic relief.
Plot holes are opened big enough to swallow the firmament. One of the leads laments the fact that they can't fit in six people in their rescue conveyance, but the view inside shows they could easily fit 25. There is a conversation about finding a landmark that two parties can meet at, and the object is said to be "too big to be a volcano". Volcanos can of course be quite huge. But it turns out to be a volcano after all so they just agree to "meet there". This would be like saying "meet me at Mt Ranier". OK, where exactly at Mt Ranier? Oops, wait, when we actually see what was "too big to be a volcano" it's a tiny hillock. oh well.
Here's the highly qualified professional soldiers in the field, assessing their status: "How's the ammo situation, cause I'm tapped out?" Ans: "Not good". "Then we need to get out of here". One might have expected a little more quantitative emphasis on ammo but no such luck. This is fairly typical of the kind of dialog and actions of what we are told repeatedly is an elite unit. Unlikely.
The CGI of the various critters is not horrible but hardly great. They are not up to Jurassic Park standards but well ahead of the original King Kong.
Barely passable lazy day entertainment.
Any attempt at a plot which involves people visiting a world deep underground has a major uphill haul to get the audience to suspend disbelief. This movie is neither better nor worse than others using the plot formula and in fact is quite a bit better than the utterly preposterous "The Core". At least Journey tries in that regard.
But there are jarringly disappointing elements as well. The acting, particularly of Mr. Evigan, is stunningly bad. He seems more like a frat boy who never matured than a project director. One of the key techs (and there are only a handful of them) looks like central casting sent over a stereotype Goth, not a stereotype Geologist. The "soldiers" are all minor babes who spend as much time fighting over trivia as cooperating as a team. The glowering general in nondescript dress is so stereotyped as to be inadvertent comic relief.
Plot holes are opened big enough to swallow the firmament. One of the leads laments the fact that they can't fit in six people in their rescue conveyance, but the view inside shows they could easily fit 25. There is a conversation about finding a landmark that two parties can meet at, and the object is said to be "too big to be a volcano". Volcanos can of course be quite huge. But it turns out to be a volcano after all so they just agree to "meet there". This would be like saying "meet me at Mt Ranier". OK, where exactly at Mt Ranier? Oops, wait, when we actually see what was "too big to be a volcano" it's a tiny hillock. oh well.
Here's the highly qualified professional soldiers in the field, assessing their status: "How's the ammo situation, cause I'm tapped out?" Ans: "Not good". "Then we need to get out of here". One might have expected a little more quantitative emphasis on ammo but no such luck. This is fairly typical of the kind of dialog and actions of what we are told repeatedly is an elite unit. Unlikely.
The CGI of the various critters is not horrible but hardly great. They are not up to Jurassic Park standards but well ahead of the original King Kong.
Barely passable lazy day entertainment.