Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is a 2012 American science fiction comedy adventure film directed by Brad Peyton and produced by Beau Flynn, Tripp Vinson and Charlotte Huggins. It is the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008). Following the first film, the sequel is based on another Jules Verne novel, this time The Mysterious Island. The film stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzmán, and Kristin Davis. The story was written by Richard Outten, Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn, and the screenplay by Brian and Mark Gunn. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was released in cinemas on February 10, 2012 by Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Walden Media to mixed reviews, but became a box office success with a worldwide gross of nearly $335 million, surpassing its predecessor. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was released on DVD/Blu-ray on June 5, 2012.

Plot
It has been four years since the previous adventure. Seventeen-year-old Sean is caught by the police after a brief chase on his dirtbike. His stepfather Hank arrives when a police officer friend calls him, explaining that Sean had broken into a satellite control center.

Hank discovers that Sean accessed the satellites in hopes of enhancing a coded signal he suspects was sent by his long missing grandfather, Alexander Anderson. Wanting to bond with his stepson, Hank helps decipher the code of Jules Verne characters which lead to three books: Treasure Island, Gulliver's Travels, and Verne's own Mysterious Island. Using the books' individual island maps, Hank uses a backlight to make them a single island, complete with the coordinates to its location. Hank manages to convince wife Liz to let him take Sean in search of the island, hoping to prove to Sean that there is no mysterious island there.

They arrive in Palau, where they hire helicopter tourism guide Gabato and his daughter Kailani (on whom Sean develops an immediate crush) to fly the to the coordinates. The helicopter gets caught in a cyclone and they crash into the Pacific, waking up on the island.

Moving inland, they are shocked to discover miniature elephants and giant butterflies. When they come across an egg clutch belonging to a vicious giant frilled lizard, they are saved by Alexander. He takes them to a hut he built from the wreckage of the ship that brought him to the island. He has a working radio, but due to the positioning of the satellite, it will be two weeks before they can call out.

The next morning, Alexander leads the group to the lost city of Atlantis, which he calculates re-submerges every 70 years, for an extended period. When Hank discovers sea water appearing from the ground, he concludes that the island will sink in a couple of days. Their only means of salvation seems to be the legendary Nautilus, Captain Nemo's submarine. Kailani enters Nemo's crypt and finds his journal, which shows that Nautilus is in a cave at Poseidon's Cliffs.

To cross the mountainous island, they mount giant bees to fly over a high ridge and makeup time. When giant bee-eater birds try to devour them, Sean saves Kailani's life, but dislocates his ankle. Hank and Alexander reset Sean's ankle, then the group has a bonding moment when Hank sings his rendition of "What a Wonderful World" to ease Sean's pain.

The next morning, the water has risen greatly and Hank deduces that the island will sink in a matter of hours. Gabato is missing, having gone toward the island's golden volcano in search of gold to give his daughter a better life. While Alexander and Kailani go after him, Sean and Hank head for Poseidon's Cliffs. Alexander also finally calls Hank by his preferred name, rather than "Henry", and the two fully bond.

To reach Nautilus' underwater cave, Sean and Hank create makeshift oxygen tanks and dive down fifty feet, but are nearly killed by a giant electric eel. The 140-year-old batteries have run down, so they engineer a way to start the submarine with the eel's electricity.

Kailani and Alexander find Gabato and convince him to escape with them instead of trying for the golden volcano. As they near Poseidon's Cliffs, the volcano violently erupts, creating lava flows and ejecting flaming lava bombs. Sean and Hank arrive in Nautilus just in time to rescue the others from the water. Gabato pilots the submarine out of harm's way while Hank and Sean fire torpedoes into the path of falling island debris. As they clear the dangers, Kailani kisses Sean for his bravery.

Six months later, Kailani and Gabato are well off, as he runs the most popular tourist attraction on Palau – tours aboard the Nautilus. Kailani visits Sean on his birthday. While the family celebrates, Alexander arrives with a book for Sean's birthday present – Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, Alexander's suggestion for the next a new adventure with the family.

Cast

 * Dwayne Johnson as Hank, Sean's stepfather and a former Navy code breaker.
 * Michael Caine as Alexander, Sean's grandfather also the father of Max and Trevor Anderson from the previous film.
 * Josh Hutcherson as Sean, Hank's stepson who wants to find his missing grandfather on the Mysterious Island.
 * Vanessa Hudgens as Kailani, Sean's love interest who is part of the father-daughter tour guide company.
 * Luis Guzmán as Gabato, Kailani's father, who is part of the father-daughter tour guide team.
 * Kristin Davis as Liz, Sean's mother and Hank's wife.
 * Stephen Caudill as Cop
 * Anna Colwell as Jessica
 * Branscombe Richmond as Tour Guide
 * Walter Bankson as Hockey Player

Production
After the commercial success of the first film, Walden Media and New Line Cinema purchased Richard Outten's spec script, Mysterious Travels, in March 2009 to serve as the basis for the film. In the story, the characters embark on a journey to a mysterious uncharted island thought to have inspired the writing of three literary classics: Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and Jules Verne's Mysterious Island. Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn were chosen to revise Outten's script. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema announced that Journey 2: The Mysterious Island would be released on February 10, 2012.

Casting
Josh Hutcherson is the only actor to reprise his role. Due to scheduling issues, Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem did not return. Kristin Davis replaced Jane Wheeler as Sean's mother Liz. Dwayne Johnson played Sean's stepfather, who is forced to accompany Sean on the trip to find his missing grandfather Alexander (played by Michael Caine) on a mythical and monstrous island. In October 2010, it was announced that Vanessa Hudgens would play Hutcherson's love interest, Kailani.

Short film
The theatrical release of the film was preceded by a Looney Tunes short film titled Daffy's Rhapsody, featuring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd in the first CG or 3-D depiction of these specific Looney Tunes characters. The short film's director, Matthew O'Callaghan, noted that "Daffy Rhapsody was originally recorded in the early 1950s as part of a kids' album." Unlike the earlier CG Looney Tunes shorts that appeared before Happy Feet Two and Yogi Bear, this short did not appear on the home video release of the film it accompanied.

Theatrical release
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was released in cinemas on February 10, 2012 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Walden Media and New Line Cinema.

International releases

 * Australia – January 19, 2012
 * Hong Kong – January 19, 2012
 * Singapore – January 19, 2012
 * South Korea – January 20, 2012
 * Taiwan – January 20, 2012
 * Malaysia – January 26, 2012
 * Indonesia – February 1, 2012
 * Brazil – February 3, 2012
 * India – February 3, 2012
 * Estonia – February 10, 2012
 * Paraguay – February 10, 2012
 * Romania – February 10, 2012
 * North America – February 10, 2012
 * Belgium – February 15, 2012
 * France – February 15, 2012
 * Italy – February 24, 2012
 * Portugal – March 8, 2012
 * Japan – March 31, 2012
 * Venezuela – May 11, 2012
 * United Kingdom − February 11, 2012

Home video
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was released on DVD/Blu-ray on June 5, 2012.

Box office
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island grossed $103.9 million in North America and $231.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $335.3 million, against a production budget of $79 million surpassing its predecessor. In North America, the film earned a $6.54 million on its debut Friday, ranking fourth at the box office. Over the weekend, it earned $27.3 million, coming in third place, much higher than the original's $21.0 million debut. Outside North America, Journey 2 began its run three weeks before its North American release. It topped the box office outside North America for two consecutive weekends and three in total. It surpassed the original's total outside North America. Its highest-grossing region after North America was China ($58.4 million), followed by Russia and the CIS ($17.6 million) and Mexico ($12.7 million).

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 43% based on 126 reviews with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Aggressively unambitious, Journey 2 might thrill teen viewers, but most others will find it too intense for young audiences and too cartoonishly dull for adults." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 41 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B grade, stating, "The movie flies by pleasantly, and is then instantly forgettable. Perhaps Jules Verne can explain the science of that." Randy Cordova from the Arizona Republic said, "Johnson can't save the movie, directed by Brad Peyton, from being a sloppy skip from one seemingly unrelated idea to the next." Roger Ebert, who gave the first film two stars, gave the sequel two-and-a-half stars, stating, "It isn't a "good" movie in the usual sense (or most senses), but it is jolly and goodnatured, and Michael Caine and Dwayne Johnson are among the most likable of actors."

Soundtrack

 * Letterbomb - Performed by Green Day
 * Sleep Forever - Performed by Crocodiles
 * Aloha Oe - Performed by Dwayne Johnson
 * Hello Again - Performed by Meta & The Cornerstones
 * Three Little Birds - Performed by Bob Marley & The Wailers
 * What a Wonderful World - Performed by Dwayne Johnson

Cancelled sequel
In August 2014, it was announced that Carey Hayes and Chad Hayes were writing the script for a third film. In 2015, it was announced that Brad Peyton and Dwayne Johnson would return to direct and star in the sequel, respectively. It was later announced that there would be two sequels. In January 2018, Johnson stated that although a third Journey film, titled Journey from the Earth to the Moon, was intended, its development had been cancelled due to a lack of immediate interest and troubles in adapting the novel.