If you haven’t read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and weren’t even able to watch the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth, then I hope you’ll find it intriguing to watch the movie or buy the book after I relate our experience.
I love Jules Verne’s books. Aside from the usual witchcraft and vampire love of Anne Rice’s books, I’m also intrigued by the old fashioned scientific theories of Vernian books. Jules Verne is a French author, famed of his writing about “Around the world in 80 days“, “Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea“, “Journey to the Center of the Earth“, and “From Earth to the Moon“. From the book titles themselves, to the story itself was a very mind titilating read.
I’m a movie lover (if it isn’t obvious yet), and rare are the times that I was able to read the book before it became the movie. Mind you, I even wasn’t able to read Jurassic Park, and so when the movie came about, well.. I said to myself, no point buying the book just to compare. :) If the movie was based on the book.. too bad I didn’t start off my reactions from its source.
Well, when the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth came about.. I was very excited. I saw its trailer while seating in the movie house to watch another movie (I forgot what it was). Althroughout the trailer segment, I couldn’t help but exclaim that I would really love to see that movie. I wanted so much to compare it to the book itself, and judge how the movie came about as another port of the story.
Brendan Fraser is a really good actor. I like his movies because he portrays sweet, emphatic, witty guys who are always in the field of adventure. Rare are the times that I’ve seen him doing other movie plots deviating from this line. Well, to note, one is Mrs. Winterbourne. Its a good watch too though he was still quite young back then. This time, he was Professor Trevor who happened to be the brother of a scientist who found the biggest terrarium ever. He followed the theories and logic found in Jules Verne’s book and found the ‘center of the earth’.
In truth, it would’ve been straightforward suicide for anyone at all. For going anywhere near the center of the earth (just like the movie “The Core“), there are dangers of pressure, hazardous elements, lack of air and even the immeasurable heat of the earth’s surface. Well, it is the converse of all the theories and findings in this movie. (Warning: If you don’t feel like agreeing at all, its a known option.. its just a theory made into a movie)
They found a certain condition (the same condition as when Max, the scientist who came to prove the theory, got in the situation) which was perfect for gathering information. In some inadvertent twist of fate, when they were trapped inside a cave, they needed an option to get out. They had to find another way. And so, from a short drop, they found an old mining spot which led them to a room full of diamonds. Trivia was that, diamonds grow abundant inside a volcanic tube. And that was how the entire shaft looked like. They stood in a thin layer of ice where the walls where full of diamonds. Sooner or later, they found themselves falling in that volcanic tube for the longest time ever. It was an absurd but funny scene. They were free falling for I’d say about 5-10 minutes!
According to the book, they’ll meet water along their way downwards. Within a short while, water vapor was rising up to meet them in the air. They plunge into a clear body of water. Soon after, they were greeted by luminous birds that was said to be the descendant of archeopteryxes and later became the ancestors of fireflies and glow worms. They were cute and adorable birds, really. :) A short exploration of the area revealed that almost everything in the book was really well accounted for by the surroundings. Good enough for them to deduce that the writer was definitely somebody who was there.
There were gigantic mushrooms, and tall waterfalls and even dangerous creatures. Every couple of minutes, the temperature rises and there were seismic activity. Every fixed number of days, a geiser erupts to shoot magma or steam ouside of its vent. It was inevitable that death would be sooner than expected if they would not reach the vent where the geiser would be shoot out. The distance between the point where they came about and the vent where the geiser would be spit out was immeasurable. They had to cross a body of water (huge enough to be called a sea). And so, they made themselves a raft which was set adrift by the strong winds (from where it came, I don’t even know).
Now, this was the fun part.. well, though I know all the parts were really good and interesting..
They had to cross that sea, and battle with huge piranhas! But after some time, some sea monsters looking more like dinasaurs themselves took the liberty of eating out these piranhas. The three of our characters, Trevor, the tourguide and Sean were split into two groups. Sean was blown off faster into their destination. He reached the solid ground, but on the opposite side of the geiser’s location. He managed to make do without his uncle by only using his wit, bravery and his dad’s old compass. My favorite part was when he had to cross a huge empty space using only magnetic rocks.
My sister and I were coaching Sean in the movie, like hell. Who would even thought of crossing those rocks that were floating about more than 200 feet above the ground! Worst of it all, it just is floating in a very unpatterned behavior. It was moving according to force! He hopped hopefully to get across the open space and reach the other side of the place. The floating rocks made it even harder. At one point, he had to hold on to the rock as it spun in vertical direction twice!!! Man, I couldn’t have possibly lived through it! :P
After awhile, Trevor and the guide had their share of difficulties battling with a living Venus flytrap. At the culmination of this long search and rescue for Sean, Trevor and his nephew meet during a flee from a dinosaur.. Well, its quite impossible that it was still living up to this time, but heck, the story was good. :) They managed to escape the dinosaur by trapping it amidst a thin ice while running after Trevor. The next parts were quite impossible, but I’ll still tell you..
The guide left ahead of them, for fear that her life was jeopardized for an insane mission. The dinosaur fell.. that was all we knew. But after awhile, when Trevor and Sean got through where the geiser would be shot, they found their guide using the lower jaw of the dinosaur as their ‘boat’. Yep, quite impossible. They hop in and pray that the riverbed would rise and shoot them up. On the contrary, the water got shallower as they progress the canal. They drop in and find a steaming magma waiting to be released (instead of the geiser). They actually missed the geiser itself. Water has dried up already and the magma was up next. They use their flares to ignite the shaft where water seems to be just behind the rocks. The shaft was covered in magnesium and would easily explode once fire hits it. And that was how they got out.
They came in to Iceland, and got out in Italy. Yep. Pure fun. :) I really loved the adventure itself.
My sister started out hot headed earlier today. She bought an anime DVD that didn’t have a subtitle. Bummer. She almost got herself skipping dinner, until I told her that for all that’s worth, let’s just go through a journey to the journey to the center of the earth. And that was how she ended up happy tonight. :)