Journey to the Centre of the Earth

In 1975, Rick Wakeman’s irrefutable dexterity on the electronic keyboard was the pretext for bringing Jules Verne’s wide-eyed 1864 adventure novel to a new audience. Now, with the aid of man mannequin Brendan Fraser, this rousing, inquisitive tale of three explorers heading into the bowels of the earth has been unfortunately beleaguered with more pointless gimmickry, this time the migraine-inducing sideshow of 3D.

The film offers a stock cycle of derivative action scenes, and the only real function of spry vulcanologist Trevor (Fraser), his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcheon) and Icelandic tour guide Hannah (Anita Briem) is to deliver the viewer to the next moment of mild 3D peril. But small children will no doubt delight in trying to grab the antennae of oversize creepy crawlies and will baulk at when the requisite T-Rex starts barrelling across the screen. Adults, meanwhile will be left to endure (and perhaps giggle at) a script that relies on repeated use of the word ‘Trevor!!!’.