Journey 2 / Chronicles

It has been a long time since I have seen this movie, it seems I don't have much time to do reviews as of the moment, but now, I have the time to indulge myself again with this hobby.

When I first saw Journey's trailer last year, I had my thoughts if this is really necessary to have a sequel from Brendan Frasier's Journey to the center of the Earth but then my faith in movies like this encouraged me to sit on it. I still have my hopes up. Journey 2 now has a new lead actor in Dwayne Johnson more known as "The Rock." It seems that Dwayne has been making more kids movies than the action movies which he is much known for. Journey 2 still has Josh Hutcherson who was one of the original cast from Journey 1.

Journey 2 is a sequel loosely based from the novel The Mysterious Island. When Josh's character tries to communicate with his lost grandfather, Hank (Johnson) accompanies him to rescue Alexander (Caine) with the aid of the combined maps of noted novels like Gulliver's Travels, etc to locate him.

What makes this movie so good is that it has the right amount of adventure in the plot. There are no overblown plots and it was made to please children and those who are a child at heart.

On the other hand, I had seen Chronicle day after Journey. I had seen the trailer and it was really good. I was not prepared when I saw the movie and it reminded me of Cloverfield. It was a documentary type film which covers the events of 3 high school friends acquiring telekinetic powers after messing up with an assumed intergalactic rock.

What impresses me about this movie is that it features the abilities we mostly fantasize about: Telekinesis, ability to fly, etc. One complaint that I have with the movie is consistency. When they filmed the movie in its form, the documentary-type, they failed to maintain that feel during the climax of the movie. It was really impossible to believe that amateurs can make such angles at a specific moment when everyone is panicking. There are some points that the style does not fit the situation.

Chronicle, however, is my fantasy that is why among its imperfections< i still managed to appreciate the film. It has a very strong start but ended rather weak at the end which could have been prevented. If you can still catch Chronicle in your local cinemas then you might as well watch it, if not, just wait a month or two and get the DVD.

GRADE:


JOURNEY 2: B
CHRONICLE: B+


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