qlue's blog

Direct To Video means low budget, minimal plot and no real storyline. I get that, I really do, but does it need to be as bad as this?

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If you think you've read the book then think again! .

Let me start with the good stuff!

This movie will thrill any ten year old kid! It's packed with unbelievable creatures, fantasy and adventure!
The basic premise of the story is that a teenage boy and his stepfather set off to find "The Mysterious Island" that Jules Verne wrote about!

They team up with a Polynesian father and his teenage daughter!
The rest is just your basic teenage "boy meets girl, acts like a real dumbass, girl kisses boy" story. It's also got the wacky old adventurer ala Indiana Jones style grandfather and magic island that's right under the noses of the locals but no one knows it's there!
Basically, your average fun kid's adventure story! (reminded me of the Willard Price adventure books)

This was would have been a great Pixar animation,... Except that it wasn't animated! .
The script was clearly written by someone who thought it was going to be though! .
In a lot of ways, it looked almost like it was cobbled together from scenes of previous Hollywood adventure films! It had a bit of Jurassic Park, a bit of Disney's Fantasia, some Crocodile Dundee and just a touch too much of The Lost World! .

As a fan of the Jules Verne classics, I consider this to be an insult to that great author! .

Give it a different title and leave out the Jules Verne references and you've got an average kid's adventure story that could stand on it's own! But by depicting it as a Jules Verne movie it becomes a slight on Jules Verne as much as on itself! .


This Movie could have made a six out of ten but for that!

I give it;

3/10 for effort! .

If you've never read a Jules Verne novel, then it's worth watching...almost!

My late Mom would really have enjoyed this movie! .

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As some of you may have guessed already, I recently watched the Disney incarnation of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Having read all five books, the original radio script and played the text adventure version of this phenomena, I was suprisingly not disappointed. This is not exactly the same story, just as the radio play differs from the book and the original radio script differs from both the book and the radio play, so too does this film differ.
No attempt was made to parrot the book and beat it into a movie. Instead, they decided to rewrite the story and make it unique. If you've read all five books, then you'll know that this movie opens with the start of the fourth book. This book was only written after a considerable time had passed. By that time, the story had become known as a trilogy comprising, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, The Restaurant At The End Of the Universe, and Life, the Universe and Everything. Whilst the second book is hardly even touched on in this movie, the first, third and fourth book are well captured and seemlessly woven into the single story that they should have been in the first place. If you want the book(s), then read the book(s), they aren't in this version. This is a good way to remember the books though so if you've enjoyed all five books but haven't read them recently, you'll most likely enjoy this movie. However, if you've seen the movie but haven't read the books, then you've missed a lot. You cannot understand the movie unless you've read all five books.
I give this movie a five out of five overall although it only gets three out of five on authenticity. To be fair though, the did manage to capture the spirit of the story that took five books to complete.

I have seen many movies, and this is not a new movie.

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