A man is being chased by a dinosaur. But it is actually a dream from Trevor, a scientist and professor at a local university.

While at his job, Trevor finds this student, Leonard, researching scientific information from different countries. It helps him proceed with his goal.

But it is interrupted when he learns that his 13-year-old nephew, Sean, will be spending 10 days with him. He cleans up the house until his sister, Liz, brings Sean, whom he has not seen in years. Despite that, Sean isn’t interested in talking to him.

After Liz leaves, Trevor offers Sean what he wants, who tells him typical teenage boy desires. But he stumbles across a book, Journey to the Center of the Earth. He not only finds essential facts for his project, but also notes from Sean’s late father, who died when he was very young. This ends up whisking him and Sean to Iceland.

After they get there, they look for a specific volcanologist. But they end up having to meet his daughter, Hannah. She is willing to take them to a volcano that will lead them to the earth’s center.

Not surprisingly, the journey gets rocky and difficult, whether it’s descending the volcano’s interior or riding strange carts to the specific land. The three arrive, thanks to some supernatural birds, who guide them to wherever they need to go.

As they check out the land, Trevor finds a note in his book from his brother, who talks about how he won’t live to see Sean grow up. That leaves both him and Sean in tears.

Then they resume their mission by sailing on the water there—only for dangerous, prehistoric fish to attack them. Water dinosaurs eat the fish, but they end up getting Sean separated from Trevor and Hannah. They now have to look for him. But obstacles, such as invincible Venus flytraps, and even a T-rex, make their journey more perilous.

I saw this movie at the age of 14 in the theaters when it came out. So, rewatching it was an interesting experience.

One detail that I noticed is how Sean was very typical for a young teen boy, who doesn’t like seeing family and considers them uncool. I remember being able to relate to him when I watched this in the cinema.

I also admire how Sean loved things like Mountain Dew and Family Guy. But even though it’s normal for young teens to be embarrassed around their families, I found it a bit too stretched for Sean to not want to see his uncle after several years of not seeing him. And from what I can tell, they probably did not have an unhealthy relationship.

Yet despite how the two did form a bond throughout the movie, I will admit that the film didn’t feel strong enough as I hoped. One flaw is how most of the action happened after the second half of the movie. The first half had too much setup.

I also feel like the movie was rushed. It is around an hour and a half long. But I think it should have been longer with higher amounts of intense scenes with more danger and action.

Another issue I have is how I found the picture quality and CGI to be too cheesy and primitive, even for 2008. It looks more like it was made no later than the early 2000s. And technology did grow drastically more advanced by the late 2000s. There were other speculative fiction movies that had higher quality picture-portrayals and stronger CGI.

That being said, there were some strengths that also stand out to me. One is when Sean is navigating a magnetic field, and the specific magnet he is on keeps shifting in different directions. He constantly worries about if he’ll be able to keep holding on. That intrigued me.

Another moment that pleased me was when Sean’s mother called him when he, Trevor, and Hannah, were fighting against the monstrous fish. He somehow got signal down there. Even though that’s unrealistic, it was actually funny.

Overall, though, Journey to the Center of the Earth, was just an okay watch. I particularly think that kids of this generation might not like the level of CGI.

I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.