Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008 theatrical film)

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Not to be confused with Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008 TV film) or Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008 direct-to-video film).

Journey to the Center of the Earth
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Eric Brevig
Screenplay by	Michael D. WeissJennifer Flackett Mark Levin
Based on	Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Produced by	Beau FlynnCharlotte Huggins
Starring	Brendan Fraser Josh Hutcherson Anita Briem
Cinematography	Chuck Shuman
Edited by	Paul Martin SmithDirk WesterveltSteven Rosenblum
Music by	Andrew Lockington
Production companies	New Line Cinema Walden Media
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	July 11, 2008
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million^[1]
Box office	$245 million^[1]

Journey to the Center of the Earth^[a] is a 2008 American 3D science fantasy action-adventure film starring Brendan Fraser in the main role, alongside Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem. Directed by Eric Brevig, it is an adaptation of Jules Verne‘s 1864 novel in which the novel exists within the film’s universe. The film tells the story of a volcanologist and his nephew who embark on a mission to go look for the former’s missing brother with help from an Icelandic guide as they come across the center of the Earth.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was released on July 11, 2008, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics, and earned $245 million against a $60 million budget.^[1] The film also introduced the 4DX movie format, featuring “4D” motion effects in a specially designed cinema in Seoul, South Korea, using tilting seats and other effects to convey motion, wind, sprays of water and sharp air, probe lights to mimic lightning, fog, scents, and other theatrical special effects.^[2] A sequel, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, was released on February 10, 2012, with only Hutcherson returning.

Plot

In 2007, Trevor Anderson is a Bostonian volcanologist whose 13-year-old nephew Sean is supposed to spend ten days with him. Trevor learns at work that his brother’s lab is being shut down because of a lack of funding. He had forgotten that Sean is coming until he receives several messages from his sister-in-law, Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth drops him off, she leaves Trevor with a box of items that belonged to Max, Trevor’s brother and Sean’s father, who disappeared 10 years ago. Sean suddenly takes interest in what Trevor has to say after he tells him about his father Max, whom he never really had a chance to know.

In the box, Trevor discovers the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. Inside the book, Trevor finds notes written by Max, then goes to his laboratory to find out more about the notes. There, he decides to go to Iceland to investigate for himself.

Trevor intends to send Sean back to his mother, but relents at the latter’s protests, so is forced to take Sean to Iceland with him. They start by looking for another volcanologist. When they get to that scientist’s institution, they meet his daughter Hannah, who informs them he died. She also tells them that both her father and Max believed that Jules Verne‘s books were factual accounts.

Hannah offers to help them climb up to the instrument that has suddenly started sending data again. While hiking the mountain, a lightning storm forces the three into a cave. The cave entrance collapses, trapping them, so they have no alternative but to go deeper into the cave, which turns out to be an abandoned mine.

Trevor, Sean, and Hannah investigate further into the mine and find a volcanic tube with walls containing various gems, including diamonds, which Sean takes. However, the ground under them breaks and they fall into a deep hole, taking them to the “Center of the Earth“. They continue and discover Max’s cave dwelling and his old journal.

Hannah and Trevor discover Max’s dead body and bury him. Trevor reads a message from Max’s journal that was written on Sean’s 3rd birthday (8.14.97). He continues to read from Max’s journal until he realizes from his notes that they must quickly leave, as the temperature is steadily rising.

Trevor figures out they must find a geyser that can send them to the surface. They must do this within 48 hours or all of the water to create the geyser will be gone. They also realise they must get out before the temperature rises above 135 degrees. They build a raft to cross the underground ocean.

However, during a storm, Hannah and Trevor get separated from Sean after they are attacked by a school of piranhas and Sean gets dragged off by a strong wind. Sean’s guide is now a little glowing bird who has been present since the trio entered the Earth’s center, and it leads him towards the river. However, he encounters an albino Giganotosaurus, and Trevor – who has been desperately searching for him – saves him. When they arrive at the geyser, it is all dried up. All the water is on the other side of the walls.

Trevor uses a flare to ignite the magnesium in the wall to cause a geyser to shoot them through Mount Vesuvius in Italy. When they damage the vineyard of an Italian man, Sean gives him a diamond that he had found earlier. Trevor sees that he has many more in his backpack and he uses them to fund his brother’s laboratory. Throughout the adventure, Hannah and Trevor gradually become so attached to each other that they share a kiss.

On the final day of Sean’s visit with Trevor (and now Hannah), as he is leaving their new home, (which was purchased with some of the diamonds Sean took from the tube), Trevor hands Sean a book titled “Atlantis” and suggests that they could hang out at Sean’s during Christmas break. The glowing bird, also smuggled out by Sean in attempt to keep it as a pet, flies off.

Cast

Brendan Fraser as Professor Trevor Anderson, a volcanologist, Sean’s paternal uncle and Max’s brother.
Josh Hutcherson as Sean Anderson, Trevor’s nephew and Liz & Max’s son.
Aníta Briem as Hannah Ásgeirsdóttir, Sigurbjörn’s daughter and Trevor’s love interest.
Seth Meyers as Professor Alan Kitzens
Jean-Michel Paré as Maxwell “Max” Anderson, Sean’s father, Trevor’s brother and Liz’s husband.
Jane Wheeler as Elizabeth “Liz” Anderson, Sean’s mother, Trevor’s sister-in-law and Max’s wife.
Frank Fontaine as Old Man
Giancarlo Caltabiano as Leonard
Kaniehtiio Horn as Gum-Chewing Girl
Garth Gilker as Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson, Hannah’s father.

Production

Development and filming

In September 2001, Walden Media announced that Eric Brevig was hired and set to direct Journey to the Center of the Earth based on the book of the same name by Jules Verne. Michael D. Weiss, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett wrote the script for the film. Beau Flynn and Charlotte Huggins produced the film with the budget of $60 million for release in 2008. In 2003, Brendan Fraser, Anita Briem, Josh Hutcherson, Seth Meyers, Jean-Michel Paré, Jane Wheeler, Giancarlo Caltabiano and Garth Gilker joined the film. Andrew Lockington composed the music for the film. The development and filming of the film were completed in Canada and Iceland in March 2006, followed by principal photography and production which began on April 20. In January 2007, New Line Cinema acquired distribution rights to the film. The film transposes the novel into the present day and is mostly live action, with only the landscape and creatures supplied by computer-generated graphics.^[3] The film is projected using Real D Cinema and Dolby 3D.^[4]

Josh Hutcherson’s character, Sean, is named after the professor and conservation biologist Dr. Sean Anderson.^[5]

The computer graphics in the film were produced by the Canadian company Meteor Studios, which declared bankruptcy immediately after having finished work on Journey to the Center of the Earth, leaving its employees and freelancers unpaid after having postponed their paychecks for three months;^[6] after a lawsuit and the direct intervention of Brendan Fraser,^[7] the former Meteor personnel settled for 70% of what was owed.^[6]

Release

Marketing

The first trailer was shown before screenings of Meet the Robinsons, the re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the release of Beowulf, with the Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, and during the 2008 Kids’ Choice Awards. Warner Bros. marketed the film like a theme park attraction.^[8] However, the studio had to slightly tweak the campaign (including dropping “3D” from the title) when it became clear that the film would be shown in 3-D in far fewer theaters than anticipated.^[9]

Theme parks

In May 2009, the film premiered as “Journey to the Center of the Earth 4-D” at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia.^[10] It also opened in the motion simulator at Dollywood under the same name on June 12 the same year.^[11] It also featured the new 4D Cinema at the Weston Super-Mare Grand Pier in the U.K. and was shown in Movieworld on the Gold Coast.

Home media

Journey to the Center of the Earth was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 28, 2008, in standard 2D format as well as a magenta / green anaglyph. It opened at #2 at the DVD sales chart behind Tinker Bell, selling 843,224 units in the 1st week which translates to $13,238,617 in revenue.^[12] As per the latest figures, 1,642,994 DVD units have been sold, bringing in $25,346,260 in revenue. This doesn’t include Blu-ray Disc sales / DVD rentals.^[12] The 2008 2-disc BD edition of the movie doesn’t conform to the – only later established – 3D Blu-ray specifications, which means that this version doesn’t take advantage of any dedicated 3D HDTVs, although it can be watched on 3D HDTVs, as well as on any other TV in anaglyph 3D, by using red-cyan paper glasses (four pairs are included). A 3D Blu-ray version was released on January 17, 2012.^{[citation needed]} Both the “Standard 2D Version” and the 3D BD version, released in 2008 by Roadshow Home Entertainment in Australia, appeared under the title Journey to the Centre of the Earth.^[13]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 60% based on 159 reviews with an average rating of 6/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Modern visuals and an old fashioned storyline make this family adventure/comedy a fast-paced, kitschy ride”.^[14] Metacritic gave the film a 57 out of 100, based on 35 reviews, indicating “mixed or average” reviews.^[15] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade “A−” on scale of A to F.^[16]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four, and wrote: “This is a fairly bad movie, and yet at the same time maybe about as good as it could be. There may not be an 8-year-old alive who would not love it.”^[17] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave it two and a half out of four, but warned “Remove a star from the rating if you take this Journey without wearing 3-D glasses. That’s where the real fun comes in.”^[18] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a B− and said “Journey is just the new version of a 1950s comin’-at-ya roller coaster, with a tape measure, trilobite antennae, and giant snapping piranha thrust at the audience.”^[19]

Box office

Journey to the Center of the Earth grossed $102 million in the United States and $143 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $245 million.^[1]

The film opened at #3 in North America, behind Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Hancock. The film grossed $21 million in 2,811 theaters in its first week of release with an average of $7,477. In its second weekend, it dropped to $12.3 million, and $9.7 million in its third.^[8]

Accolades

Award	Year	Category	Result	Cast/crew
Teen Choice Awards	2008	Choice Summer Movie: Action Adventure	Nominated
Young Artist Award	2009	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actor	Nominated	Josh Hutcherson
BMI Film & TV Awards	2009		Won	Andrew Lockington
World Soundtrack Awards	2009	Discovery of the Year	Nominated	Andrew Lockington

Sequel

Main article: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

In March 2009, New Line Cinema and Walden Media announced a sequel film, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, starring Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Luis Guzman, and Vanessa Hudgens. Fraser and Briem did not return, and Jane Wheeler was replaced by Kristin Davis. Journey 2 was filmed between November 2010 and February 2011 and was released in February 2012. Like the first movie, the sequel was shot in 3D, and the script is loosely based on a Verne novel – The Mysterious Island.

Journey to the Center of the Earth: 4-D Adventure

Journey to the Center of the Earth 4-D Adventure is a 15-minute 4D film shown at various 4D theatres all over the world. It retells the condensed story of the film with the help of 3D projection and sensory effects, including moving seats, wind, mist and scents. Produced by SimEx-Iwerks,^[20] the 4D experience premiered in 2009. Locations included Warner Bros. Movie World (2010–2012),^[21] Dollywood (2009–2012),^[22] Enchanted Kingdom (2009–),^[23] Stone Mountain, and Rainbow’s End.