One can only speculate how Jules Verne, author of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), would think of the 2008 film version of his work.  If Verne is in Heaven, he has better things to occupy his time than worry about how our generation is honoring his work.  The same could be said if he is in the other place.  On the other hand, the argument could be made that this cinematic piece has nothing to do with his famous novel.  It is true that the main characters travel to the title location, but I do not believe the French writer would conceive of anything so silly as the things that happen in the movie.  If you are not sure, read on and decide for yourself.

If given the choice, I am sure Professor Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser), a struggling volcanologist, would prefer to not have dreams of a Journey to the Center of the Earth.  This is what I am guessing is happening at the beginning, though who he has in mind is not entirely clear because we are never told.  I suppose it is safe to assume it is Maxwell “Max” Anderson (Jean-Michel Pare) since he is later identified as having gone to the title location, but the dream is never again referenced.  It is not Professor Anderson’s nighttime musings that are the only thing troubling him.  At the school where he teaches, his students tune him out and a colleague, Professor Alan Kitzens (Seth Meyers), is threatening to shut down Professor Anderson’s work.  Upon getting home, all Professor Anderson wants to do is relax.  This is interrupted when he listens to his messages.  There are four from his sister-in-law, Elizabeth “Liz” Anderson (Jane Wheeler), announcing that she is coming with his nephew, Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson).  Since Max’s disappearance when Sean was a toddler, Professor Anderson had been trying to be a father figure.  Sean is now a teenager and they have not seen each other in a few years.  Hoping they can reconnect, Liz is dropping Sean off to spend the weekend with his uncle.  Along with it comes a box of Max’s stuff that he had wanted to give to his brother.  In it is the eponymous book containing a number of notes Max jotted down in the margins.  Something about these scribblings intersects with Professor Anderson’s work, so he goes to his lab to cross reference.  I am not sure how to describe this aspect of the film, but it has something to do with volcanos around the world that he has been monitoring and are about to erupt.  While looking through the research on the computers, Sean notices an additional location in Iceland.  Excited, he immediately resolves to travel to the island country in the Atlantic.  He initially says Sean will not be able to accompany him, but when Professor Anderson suggests that this is where Max might have disappeared, there is no stopping the teenager.  Once there, they rent a car and make their way to the home of Sigurbjörn Ásgeirsson (Garth Gilker), a fellow volcanologist.  Instead of getting the scientist, they get his daughter, Hannah Ásgeirsson (Anita Briem).  She is there because her father, too, has disappeared.  In looking over Max’s notes, she also recognizes them as the writings of a special group of Verne enthusiasts who believed everything the French novelist wrote was real.  She can make this claim because Sigurbjörn was a member of this society.  Hence, it is not much of a surprise that she volunteers to lead them to the volcano reader, though for a price.  Once there, a violent storm surges.  As Hannah and Sean take shelter, Professor Anderson refuses to move as quickly.  It is only once lightning bolts strike near the metal rod he is holding that he runs towards the cave in which Hannah and Sean are hiding.  Unfortunately, the tempest also triggers an avalanche, trapping them underground.  With no other options they begin exploring for a way out.  After an Indiana Jones-esque mine car ride, they break open an antechamber with precious stones lining the walls.  While Sean lines his backpack with fist-sized diamonds, Professor Anderson notices a problem.  As so often happens in these kinds of movies, this is the point at which the floor literally drops out from under them.  They fall for what seems like an eternity before miraculously landing on what amounts to a waterslide and being dumped into the environment that is the center of the Earth.  Their initial search of the area uncovers signs of habitation, which Professor Anderson takes to be the main character from Verne’s book.  It turns out that it belonged to Max, whose body is found on the shore of a nearby ocean.  Thankfully, he left behind his escape plan, which involves crossing the body of water and riding a geyser to the surface.  Simple enough, no?  Well, on the way, they have to deal with flying piranhas; Sean being ripped away by their makeshift sail; and the kid also having to dodge a tyrannosaurus rex.  Also, time is not on their side because the tectonic shifts they are feeling presage an eruption that is going to heat up the area beyond a human’s capacity to bear.  Hannah and Professor Anderson make it to their target destination first, but he refuses to leave without his nephew.  Thus, Professor Anderson goes back for Sean, helping the kid get away from the ravenous dinosaur.  The extra time, though, means they are too late for the plume of water they were hoping to utilize.  As a result, Professor Anderson uses his volcanologist skills in order to create a gush of water that lands on bubbling lava below, creating a flow of steam that rockets them upward in a giant, fossilized skull.  They give one of their many diamonds to the bewildered Italian farmer they surprise before returning to the United States.  Why Hannah goes with them, I do not know, but she is on hand for the final shot.

I suppose it makes sense that Hannah is there at the end of Journey to the Center of the Earth since she and Professor Anderson kiss a few times.  This is supposed to mean that they care for each other, but I see more heartfelt bonds between Professor Anderson and Sean.  The Bible does have examples of similar situations, such as in Genesis when Abraham takes on a fatherly role for Lot, despite eventually separating.  More broadly, Professor Anderson acts in Biblical way as demonstrated in his concern for others.  With Sean missing, at one point Professor Anderson encourages Hannah to go on without him and to save herself.  At other moments, he offers her the last of his water.  Finally, there is his willingness to risk his life for his nephew.  This happens with the tyrannosaurus rex, in first retrieving Sean and then running away from the dinosaur.  There is heroic virtue in Professor Anderson’s actions.  Virtue is something about which the Church has given a lot of thought over the centuries.  It has even come up with categories of them, including the cardinal and theological virtues.  At their base, they are about displaying extraordinary character in extraordinary circumstances.  If that does not extend to being sucked down to the center of the Earth and having to fend off monsters, I am not sure what does.  Of course, Faith has no role to play in the movie.  Nonetheless, our main characters are rewarded in the end when they find the expensive diamonds still in their possession.

As rich as the three main characters become at the end of Journey to the Center of the Earth, it is a little shocking to see the cheap special effects in the film.  This could be a function of its age, or the fact that I believe it was shot for 3-D.  In any case, it is not a movie I am recommending, with apologies to Jules Verne.