Journey 2: The Mysterious Island: Movie Review

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is a fun-filled adventure for the whole family. The goal is mostly to entertain, a task the movie does well, but there’s also a strong pro-family message for viewers as the story runs its course.

The movie opens with young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) getting in trouble with the police. His firefighter stepfather, Hank, gets everyone not to press charges. He tries to communicate with Sean, but the two don’t get along. Eventually, however, Sean opens up to Hank and tells him he was trying to receive a coded satellite message from his grandfather. Sean believes the message tells him the location of the actual “Mysterious Island” from the book by Jules Verne.

They decode the message together and discover it leads to some coordinates near the island of Palau in the South Pacific. Sean wants to go there, and Hank agrees to take him. He thinks that, once Sean discovers the island doesn’t exist, they can go back home to Dayton, Ohio. (For more spoilers, go to movieguide.org.)

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is another successful piece of family entertainment from the folks behind 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, which told Sean’s first adventure into Jules Verne’s universe. Michael Caine adds a touch of class and heart as the grandfather. Also, Dwayne Johnson adds some heartfelt entertainment of his own. In fact, he even sings a surprisingly funny, heartwarming and tuneful version of “What a Wonderful World” in one scene. Like the previous movie, this is a science fiction movie for families with pre-teen children, so some purists may be upset, but not this particular purist or his MOVIEGUIDE® colleagues.

Best yet, the new movie seems even more family-friendly than the previous movie. Younger children will be more excited and thrilled than scared. There’s no intense violence in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, but there’s plenty of action and suspense, laced with some light, playful humor. The movie eventually delivers a positive message celebrating family bonds. Also, there’s no foul language or other crude content. The filmmakers and folks at Walden Media and Warner Bros. should be congratulated for keeping this series going by providing another entertaining, family-friendly entry.

NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, at www.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.