Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Blithely idiotic... Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The presence of actors as good as Caine and Guzman only highlights how dreadful and dumb the banter is. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Please tell me I didn't really see what I think I just saw: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sitting on a log, playing ukulele and singing "What a Wonderful World" to Michael Caine. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ...the best that moviegoers who don't much enjoy genial sci-fi/fantasy silliness can expect is a relatively inoffensive time... Read more

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: The usual escape-before-the-big-blast stuff ensues, augmented by some fairly tedious family dynamics. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Giant jungle creatures lunge and hiss into the screen, projectiles appear to whiz past your face, and the whiff of vintage cheesiness reeks from easy gotcha! moments. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: The island locale rings with reggae music regardless of its proximity to Jamaica, and any action sequence is rendered in painfully deliberate slo-mo. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: The 3-D setpieces are the film's sole raison d'etre, but Mysterious Island doles them out stingily, and its exotic setting registers as a poor man's Pandora. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: Johnson can't save the movie, directed by Brad Peyton, from being a sloppy skip from one seemingly unrelated idea to the next. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Even by the unambitious standards of some children's movies and many movies that star Caine, this one has a difficult time making a case for itself as anything other than an adventure in baby-sitting. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's only disguised as fun. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The equivalent of throwing "Jurassic Park," "Avatar" and the absolute worst episode ever of "Land of the Lost" in a blender and pushing "garble." Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The movie flies by pleasantly, and is then instantly forgettable. Perhaps Jules Verne can explain the science of that. Read more

Megan Lehmann, Hollywood Reporter: As the band of adventurers skips from one supersized Survivor-like challenge to the next, one can't help feeling the creative potential of Verne's vision is wasted. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island makes a nice case to your kids that reading books is a good idea. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Offers giant rocks clearly made of Styrofoam and Dwayne Johnson, who fits the same description. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: I swear some of the giant, Day-Glo vegetation had "Property of 'Lost in Space'" stamped on it. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Harkens back to so-bad-they're-fun '70s children's epics like "At the Earth's Core" and "The Land That Time Forgot." Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: You know we're in serious trouble when even old pros such as Michael Caine and Luis Guzman can't do anything with the uninspired and unfunny script. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It isn't a "good" movie in the usual sense (or most senses), but it is jolly and good-natured, and Michael Caine and Dwayne Johnson are among the most likable of actors. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: A brainless 3-D sequel to 2008's brainless 3-D "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Surely the silliest outing for Caine since he swatted rampaging killer bees in the 1978 disaster flick "The Swarm." Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Anyone old enough to have read Jules Verne or seen the way his work was successfully adapted in the past will suffer worse than the kids in the audience who just came to laugh. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The Mysterious Island is everything a 12-year-old boy could want - endless adventure involving a reckless adolescent hero, with a pretty girl in a clinging T-shirt around to watch him struggle. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The equivalent of those pre-made sandwiches you buy at Starbucks -- not bad for you, and not entirely lacking in flavor, but nothing particularly memorable, either. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: It's a harmless family film with an old-fashioned spirit of adventure, but the writing doesn't live up to the promise of the premise. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: A wretched shipwreck of a film that will appeal only to young minds of the most limited discernment and imagination. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Don't expect anything resembling believability, but enjoy the blend of strikingly colorful visuals and banter between odd couple Johnson and Caine, which combine for a mild escapist treat. Read more

Russell Edwards, Variety: A fun though rarely funny family adventure whose lively special effects compensate somewhat for actors who largely sleepwalk through their roles. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Screenwriters Brian and Mark Gunn still have trouble scripting action sequences or dialogue that rises above "Let's do this" level. Read more

John DeFore, Washington Post: Sincerely tries to pay homage to the likes of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson but is too contaminated by today's tame sensibilities to make it fly. Read more