Reviews

The overall plot itself is incredibly far-fetched, and you can't help but feel that you're just being moved from set-piece to set-piece to show off the technology. Fraser is his useful, wise-cracking hero that we've come to expect from the Mummy trilogy, while Briem and Hutcherson give competent performances, the latter managing to avoid the "annoying kid" cliché that plagues many family-friendly action movies. The romantic sub-plot seems unnecessary, and overly force, but to be fair, you'll likely find yourself too awestruck by the effects themselves to actually care about how generally ludicrous the story actually is.

From the opening moments, as bugs reach out at you with antennas, yo-yos come flying towards the screen, and Brendan Fraser spits his toothbrush water into your face, you know that you're in for something of a visual treat. Later on, a sequence involving a mine-cart ride shows the action from a first person perspective, giving you a real sense of being "in the movie", as corny as that may sound.

Fraser and Hutcherson look a lot more healthy than they do with green hue of the 3D glasses

At several points throughout, you'll be gasping with awe, ducking objects that are really of no threat to you, and marvelling at objects blending into the background with ease, all the while thinking how amazing it would have been in cinemas, where Real D technology was implemented. The more cynical might be inclined to point sequences that have been specifically shot with unneeded items in the foreground to add depth to the overall picture, but this can be forgiven.

As good as the effects are, what lets them down slightly are the glasses themselves. Stereoscopic 3D glasses are the old cardboard specs with dual-coloured lenses, in this case, magenta and green. They do the job expected of them fantastically well, and you anticipate that the larger the screen, the more awesome it would look, but there are a couple of downsides. The first comes when objects on the screen move towards the centre, it tends to leave you going a little cross-eyed.

Perhaps not the safest route to the centre, but likely the quickest

The second issue is that the mixed colour lenses mean that you don't get to see the movie exactly as it was intended. Everything is a hazy mix of the two lens colours, as compared to the moderately bright colours of the 2D version. Despite this though, as a sign of what's to come in future action movies in 3D, and a silly-but-enjoyable thrill-ride for the family to enjoy, Journey 3D is an hour and a half well-spent.

DVD/BD Special Features:

2D and 3D cuts of the film

Commentary by Brendan Fraser and Eric Brevig

3 Featurettes: A World Within Our World, Being Josh and How to Make Dino Drool