Journey to the Center of the Earth

I remember when I was very young, I was in a Dollar Store, looking at the books they had. The only book that interested me was Jules Verne's A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, so I bought it and threw it on a shelf at home. During one summer, I was bored, so I'd picked it up and started to read it, not expecting much. To my surprise, I instantly fell in love with it. It presented such a grand adventure, I couldn't help but utterly enjoy it. For a while, I'd hoped somebody would make a great film version of the book, because the words seemed so vivid to me. I'd read about versions here and there, but none of them sounded like they properly captured the spirit of the book. I saw that Henry Levin's 1959 version was the most widely praised version, so I decided to check it out, and see how well it did.

To tell you the truth, I don't really remember much about the book, unfortunately. I do remember a bit about the overall plot and characters, but few details remained in my memory. I remembered vaguely how the city of Reykjavik, how he'd described the way their guide ate at the Inn (which, I realize, might have been confusion with another story on my part) and the overall sense of a seemingly-unending journey underground. So, I can't say how well the film captured the details, but it's certainly done a good job of capturing the overall spirit of the story.

I was always impressed with the balance between the fantastic and the scientific of the story. They approach it in such a straight-laced manner, completely scientific, despite all the elements of wonder and fantasy that they see around them. James Mason really nailed the part here, blending both of these elements as perfectly as they should be. The rest of the cast was good, but Mason takes the cake.

Some of the effects work, unfortunately, looks really dated. I hate calling older films out on effects, just because they're usually not important, but in this story, the images and their believability are of great consequence. For example, the scene in the caverns, with the small pools and glittering crystals, sometimes it was just hard to comprehend the geometry fully. Plus, you could tell it was all studio-created. The same goes for a lot of the basic caverns. And don't get me started on those salamanders.

It's done a good job capturing the overall spirit, though, despite its shortcomings. The story's dear to my heart, and has been for many years, so I'm just overly critical. I'm hoping somebody takes up the chance to do a definitive version of the story in my lifetime. And if not, I might have to take the reins myself!