The USA Network's version of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth got off to a promising start despite its only passing resemblance to the original book. Treat Williams's Theodore Linton is a cross between Indiana Jones and Professor Harold Hill, determined to prove a theory that deep-water lakes got their water from the center of the earth and funding his research with the occasional illegal bare-knuckles bout.
Hired by Alice Hastings (Tushka Bergen) to locate her husband, Casper (Bryan Brown), who had disappeared seven years earlier somewhere in New Zealand, Linton and his nephew Jonas (Jeremy London) take ship for Auckland to explore the caverns on the island of Taronga. With the aid of a scruffy gunrunner named McNiff (Hugh Keas-Byrne) and the less than surprising company of Mrs. Hastings, they descend into the bowls of the earth.
So far so good. This part of the film had plenty of action and humor to keep it moving at a good pace. Linton's obsession with his exploration isn't dimmed by the party's being captured by cannibals, fired on by the army or forced to survive on gin when their water runs out.
"Unexpected travel experiences are like dancing lessons with God," he tells the less-than-enthusiastic Jonas.
Once the group crosses the huge underground lake at the "center of the earth," however, the promise of the first two hours goes straight down the lava tubes. Rescued by long-haired tribesman, they discover that Casper Hastings is lord and master of a village where he has taught all the women to speak English. From this point on, the entire plot bogs down in one cliché after another generously slathered with a lot of psychological jargon. By this time, Williams has apparently gotten so immersed in his original concept of Linton that he can't even summon up a second of emotional fervor when he is about to lose the woman he loves to her husband.
Visually, the four-hour movie is wonderful. The New Zealand landscape is incredibly lush and a delight to the eye, and the blue-screen work is, with one exception, superb. The creatures are all well-handled and believable, and there are small touches like the lizard-men's infrared vision that show someone was trying.
Unfortunately, "trying" doesn't cut it. Journey to the Center of the Earth was a good idea that got sidetracked halfway through the script, and what could have been at least decent entertainment turns into a silly, boring conglomeration of psycho-babble and stupidity.
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