Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

The cast, the plot, and the length (4 hours when it appeared on the Hallmark cable channel) was satisfactory and somewhat like the original but I am not doing a comparative analysis; rather I am seeking the reason why this third made for television version was made. It certainly gives the book little justice because much of the content was not even in Jule’s book let alone his imagination; however, I give much credit for creativity on the director and writer’s part.

The graphics and the imbued effect of stating there is a vortex on some of the deeper inland lakes, is quite promising. It is in the suggestions, scientifically addressed, that provides some hope for the duration of the movie. It is set in the 19th century, 1875 to be exact and uses the traditional costume and tongue of the era with perfection, it evokes actually becoming part of the script. You feel like you have ascended into the world of a directors personal madness only to be exalted from a position of more informed idealogy where the imagination serves to teach.

I enjoy science fiction, especially good science fiction and Jules Verne wrote some fantastic stories. Influenced by a vivid imagination and a desire to constantly seek the 'beyond', Jules gives audiences, both readers and watchers alike, flavor ! He also gives theories like evolution, astronomy, geology and heat, emotions, suffering, lots of exploration and love a chance for survival as his characters ebb and flow through great dialogue and strong development of the character itself.

Following true to the original story, the cast does include a woman superbly played by Tushka Bergen ...as Mrs. Alice Hastings whose husband, Casper Hastings splendidly performed by Bryan Brown (Doug from COCKTAIL), has disappeared and been declared ‘missing or dead’ upon leaving for an expedition that were to prove other lands do exist. In this version, the heroine is changed, more persevered, more independent.

Unlike the 1959 version, which starred Pat Boone and James Mason as Alexander McKuen and Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook who are replaced by Treat Williams and Jeremy London ( an adorable fascimile of Brendan Fraser only younger and skinnier). Tushka captures romance, determination, and represents a woman above the average of the time, who used her mind over her pretty form, to enjoy life as she knew it. Her intrigue with things most men found intriguing, captures the heart and mind of Theodore Lytton played by Treat Williams, a scientist who believed in the improbable. Theodore is excited about things that do not make sense, he is determined to find a husband of a woman he knows nothing about yet craves to know all about. Theirs is a love-story but not made mushy, it is professionally and intimately discreet.

With my intrigue inspired momentum, I decided to research the concept of what a vortex might be like. In my studies, I discovered scientists do know there are vortices (A vortex (pl. vortices) is a quickly and turbulently spinning, flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex. The speed and rate of rotation of the fluid are greatest at the center, and decrease progressively with distance from the center.(2)) already present feeding certain underground sources of massive volume of water such as Ocala Silver Springs Florida a river fed from beneath the earth. 

I am unlucky to have ever visited or heard of the 'vortex' in my state Ohio's bodies of water, which offers the blue hole a bottomless body of water, http://www.ubuprojex.net/archives/bottom.html (1) in Castalia once a major tourist attraction. My dad used to go there to throw a huge rock, waiting for the bubbles and a sound of it hitting bottom, but it never did. It was called ‘the spring with no bottom’.

Unfortunately, times have changed and the Blue Hole serves no public attention except for the staff of the fish hatchery that now stands where tourists used to stand in droves. The fish that are matured there include cold-water fish for the state's stocking program.(1) This element of truth makes the movie a bit more realistic even if the harmony between reptilian creatures and hominids is not.

The disharmony between differently evolved creatures was probably the funniest addition that had me chuckling and Jules Verne’s spirit immobilized with shock. The prehistoric dinosaur kind of creatures the audience is introduced to might be lame but for effect of imagination and going ‘beyond’ if you think about why this element was attached to such a story: it is simple.

What if ?

As part of the human race I often wonder if earth is not the only place inhabited. With this deep regard for ‘not being alone’, I bring my idealogy closer to home and seek other cohabitation practices using movies such as this to sort-of ’affirm a hypothesis’. We really don’t know what kind of people would be thrown together into a civilization not necessarily civil with each other, and this brings a possibility to light. It is a good movie for what it tries to accomplish, making us think beyond and outside of the box.

Thank you George Miller for giving us yet another good twist on the probability of other civilizations waiting to be explored . . . A warning for some of the content and language and reference to adult situations in that this probably should not be watched by youngsters under thirteen. Of course that decision is entirely left up to the parents who would watch this first, laugh quite a bit as well as be intrigued by what unfolds and then ready to answer unusual questions following the popcorn and the movie.

Director:

George Miller

Writers

(WGA):

Jules Verne (novel)
Thomas Baum (teleplay)

Release Date:

14 September 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Fantasy made for television and DVD sales

Plot:

A decent worth your money--version of Jules Verne's classic story which focuses on four oddly-matched people who are on a quest. They find adventure, mystery, awe, inspiration, ecstasy, servitude, respect, and even pain and suffering as they descend into the furnace of exploration. Starring Treat Williams, Jeremy London, Hugh Keays-Byrne, and Tushka Bergen, I was entertained taking a sojourn through a mysterious hidden land buried conveniently between chaos, survival and reality, in a live volcano in Iceland. I watched this presentation last night and was really entertained as you will be also . . .

(1) http://www.bloggingohio.com/2007/01/21/seven-natural-wonders-of-ohio-the-blue-hole/

(2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older