Review: 'Journey 2' sinks Verne's isle in 3-D muck

There's little mystery about "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island."

This 3-D sort-of sequel wears its formula-for-dollars purpose with pride, delivering a dash of cinematic nonsense that represents Hollywood calculation at its shrewdest and most shameless.

Again poking Jules Verne's remains with a sharp stick, the producers of the 2008 hit "Journey to the Center of the Earth" present their second modern take on the 19th century fantasist's wild stories. And "Mysterious Island" is every bit the amusement park ride cloaked as a movie that the first "Journey" was, the new flick stranding a misfit band of adventurers on Verne's lost island of freakish creatures.

What this one lacks by comparison is the relative novelty of digital 3-D, which was in its infancy for mainstream theatrical releases when "Journey to the Center of the Earth" came out.

It also lacks the likable goof factor of Brendan Fraser, who starred in the first movie but isn't back for the second. Dwayne Johnson steps in this time, and while he tries to yuck it up amid the nonstop action, he's just not a goofball on the order of Fraser, who somehow can make extreme silliness palatable with that big, simpering grin of his. Johnson, on the other hand, merely simpers.

"Journey 2" also features a change of directors, with Brad Peyton ("Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore") overseeing a collection of impressive but annoying visuals, serving up gimmicky 3-D that's continually trying to poke things in your eye.

Johnson stars as ex-Navy guy Hank, stepfather to troublesome teenager Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first "Journey").

In its rushed and clunky opening minutes, "Journey 2" establishes that Sean's a bad boy genius who resents his stepdad; bonds the two in a scene that shows Hank's an OK guy and Sean's not such a bad boy and not such a genius; sends them off to the South Pacific in search of Sean's grandfather (Michael Caine), who sent a cryptic transmission that he had found Verne's supposedly fictional island; and lands them in the company of helicopter pilot Gabato (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful daughter, Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens), who ferry the visitors to the remote isle.