Book-To-Movie: ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’

Both the 1959 and the 2008 movies based on Jules Verne's novel, "Journey to the Center of the Earth", feature terrifying monsters such as the ones here in this illustration from an early edition of the book.
Credit: Édouard Riou/Wikimedia Commons 

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

As I said last post, I’ve postponed the month’s Book-To-Movie review from last week to this week. For those of you who are just tuning into this blog, a Book-To-Movie is when we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. And this weekend’s review is of Jules Verne’s novel, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and its movie adaptations. There have been several movies based on this novel that was originally published in Paris in 1864 (as “Voyage au Centre de la Terre”). However, most of them have been either made for TV or video. Because I believe movies are best when made for the big screen, I am going to review the theatrical films in which there have been two: the 1959 version and the 2008 one. While 1959’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is a movie based on the novel of the same name, 2008’s version is more so inspired by the book than it is based on it. 

The Novel

Verne’s style of storytelling is scientific while romantic, which is how all good science fiction should be. It’s scientific in that it covers the natural and technological phenomena plausibly, explaining the science where needed, while moving the story along. Therefore, at least for the time they were published in, Verne’s most famous works such as “Journey to the Center of the Earth” tell stories with interesting characters and well-developed plots while conveying the science behind the events. Most readers, except for nerds like myself, wouldn’t see it that way today since reading is done more for escapism than it is to learn or think about something. While Verne’s fiction conveys scientific realism, it’s romantic because it speculates the endless potential of technological invention and the vast unexplored regions of the earth of the author’s time. 

Verne’s novel, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, is about a young man, Axel, who is forced to go on an expedition with his geologist uncle, Professor Lidenbrock. Axel is against going because he does not believe the core of the earth is survivable for humans. However, the uncle insists otherwise. Because Axel is under his uncle’s guardianship, he has no choice but to go to Iceland with him. There they go to a huge crater where they lower themselves into a shaft believed to lead to the earth’s core. Accompanying them is the Icelandic native, Hans, who Lidenbrock has hired as a guide. On their journey they encounter many dangers and wonders, including prehistoric monsters and a subterranean sea. 

The characters in Verne’s novel are well-developed and likeable, even the uncle who is very temperamental and, as intelligent as he his, becomes unreasonable at times. Yet he still has his good side and thinks well of his nephew. While Hans is more of a supporting character, and so not as well-developed, he’s also likeable.

The 1959 Movie Adaptation

Trailer for the 1959 Movie Adaptation of "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

The 1959 movie of “Journey”, directed by Henry Levin and starring Pat Boone and James Mason, follows the plot of the book well while adding a few more events and characters. Most of the characters taken from the book are given new names and some are even given slightly different roles. For example, the character that’s based on Axel has been renamed Alec and is not a nephew to the professor but a dedicated geology student of his. One of the additions to the characters is Carla Goteborg, the widow to a rival colleague of the professor who goes on the expedition with him, Alec and Hans the guide. Because she joins the expedition, an act that women were not expected to perform in the Victorian era that the movie, like the book, is set in, she breaks the female stereotype of the story’s time setting and even of the period in which the movie was made. One of the added scenes that is not in the book is when the expedition comes across the Lost City of Atlantis which adds to the speculative element. 

The movie is good overall. Its 19th century setting gives the sense of scientific breakthrough that occurred during that time with technological inventions and exploration of uncharted territory such as the North and South Poles. One of the few problems I had with it, though, is that it took too long to introduce the conflict. Still, it’s a good interpretation of the novel.

The 2008 Movie Adaptation

Trailer for the 2008 Movie Adaptation of "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

The 2008 movie version of the novel, directed by Eric Brevig and starring Brendan Fraser, is more an inspired response to Verne’s story than it is a direct adaptation of it. That’s because the characters are not taken from the book but are totally different and they, rather than the movie, follow the events of the novel. A geology professor, Trevor Anderson, and his teenage nephew, Sean, find a copy of Verne’s novel with notes written in it by the professor’s brother who went on an expedition to explore the earth’s core having been inspired by the book. And so Anderson and Sean go follow the brother’s path not so much to look for the earth’s core than to find the missing brother.

This movie is more action packed than anything and so doesn’t build on drama and character as much as the 1959 film. Still, the character interaction between the uncle and nephew is developed well even if the characters themselves are typical. The guide in this movie is not Hans, but Hannah, and so gives the movie opportunity to feature this strong female character because, like Carla Goteborg in the 1959 film, she takes the dangerous journey. The difference is that she is more witty and conveys more survival skills. 

I would have liked this version far more than I did if it wasn’t for the cliché beginning that movies in the 2000s very annoyingly relied on too much: the dream sequence beginning. The protagonist is shown in the central turmoil of the movie only to wake up from a dream. I almost turned the damn thing off when I saw this even though I knew it was coming. Such a lazy manner of beginning a movie talks down to the intelligence of the average adult. Because of this, I think this would make a good kids’ film more than anything, which we need more of for our youth. The other problem I had with this flick was that it’s set in the present. Because of that, the scientific phenomenon doesn’t seem to be as spectacular as it is in the 1959 film: today almost everything on and in the planet has already been explored. Still, it makes a great popcorn movie. 

Both movie adaptations of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” are good to some extent. Both have great special effects for their times, both are adventurous and suspenseful and both feature terrifying monsters that the characters have to get away from. But there is one problem that the two films share: the science is glossed over. You don’t get the scientific plausibility in either of these movies as you do in Verne’s book. So, the truly speculative element that is in the book is not conveyed that much in either movie. The 1959 film makes a better adaptation of the novel than the 2008 one simply because it’s just that, an adaptation rather than an inspired response. However, because the book makes the events more plausible by using the scientific and technological concepts it had to work with during its time, it beats both of these films. 

Have you read Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”? Have you seen either of the two above movie adaptations or other movie versions of the novel? 

Until next time . . .