Somehow the upcoming Journey to the Center of the Earth with Brendan Frasier completely passed me by. I don’t remember knowing anything about the picture until a few weeks ago when I first started hearing about the trailer. Now the trailer has made its way online and… well, I probably could survive without knowing much more about the movie. Don’t get me wrong – I like Frasier, and his adventurer character from the Mummy pictures made for a decent replacement for Indiana Jones. This isn’t that character, however, nor that franchise.

I’m guessing the main reason I hadn’t heard anything about this movie is because its in 3D, intended for 3D capable theaters, which I don’t hang out in that often. What worries me is that, from the looks of the trailer, this movie intends to make full use of that 3D presentation, which means lots of gimmicky shots intended to make the audience feel more immersed in the movie – or at least that’s how they’re intended to appear. Instead they just seem clichéd.

In fact, the whole trailer feels like an amalgamation of different movies. A lot of the 3D effects come across as being like Spy Kids 3D, while the shot of the center of the earth looks like Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan’s Genesis planet. There’s the mining car chase from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Heck, there’s even a Bill and Ted joke in there.

Hopefully the trailer plays better on a 3D screen, because I’m pretty unimpressed by this postage-stamp presentation. Click to view the trailer yourself and see if you agree.