'Jules Verne's Mysterious Island'
(Kyle MacLachlan, Danielle Calvert, Gabrielle Anwar, Patrick Stewart, Jason Durr, et al / DVD+Digital / NR / (2005) 2018 / Mill Creek Entertainment)
Overview: Five prisoners of war escape captivity in a Confederate prison camp only to land in an uncharted Pacific island where time stands still and dastardly pirates don't take kindly to strangers in director Russell Mulcahy's screen adaptation of fantasy author Jules Verne's literary classic.
DVD Verdict: I've always been an admirer of Jules Verne's novels, but this TV movie was certainly poorly produced, sorry. Indeed, this movie has a completely different story line from Jules Vernes novel and even the many films that have been made!
Like Jules Verne's novel, the film tells the story of a group of prisoners who have escaped from a Confederate prisoner of war camp during the American Civil War by a hot air balloon. They travel over the pacific and their balloon is wrecked on an island in the south Pacific, an island which is filled with mysterious secrets.
While Captain Nemo did appear in the novel of 'Mysterious Island' he didn't appear in the novel until the third quarter of the novel, while in this movie he reveals himself close to the beginning. Also there were no female characters in the novel of 'Mysterious Island' while this includes film a woman who works as a nurse at the Confederate prisoner of war camp and her teenage daughter who are among the escapees in the balloon and stranded on the island.
But I suppose it does give a bit of interest to the film. While there were certainly cutthroat pirates in the novel of 'Mysterious Island' I don't recall any giant animals either!
The giant creatures were certainly very terrifying in this movie. There was a giant praying mantis, giant scorpions, giant ants, and even a giant bird. These creatures certainly presented a great suspense throughout the film, the computer generated affects didn't look realistic at all.
This TV movie certainly needed a lot more to make it interesting. It needed a better cast of actors for one thing, but most of all this film needed a better story-line, for the story in this movie is extremely dull; it's not like the story in the novel at all, as mentioned.
Overall the only good thing about this movie was Patrick Stewart as he is such a brilliant actor! In fact he was the only reason I kept watching the TV movie, now out on DVD+Digital via Mill Creek Entertainment. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1:78.1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
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