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Sure, tomorrow may be iPhone 3G day for lots of people, but many more people don’t have any idea it’s even coming out. For throngs of summer moviegoers, tomorrow is yet another opening day, and one of the openings is the Brendan Fraser starrer Journey to the Center of the Earth, which will be shown in 3-D in about 950 screens. Over at the Hollywood Reporter, there’s a story about how there aren’t enough of those 3D screens for Journey to open bigger and better. But is that really the problem?

If you’ve ever seen 1959’s classic version of the Jules Verne story, then you no doubt have thought that Journey would be one of the best films to have a remake created, what with its fantastic inner-earth locations, strange creatures and loads of opportunities for otherworldy action.

But the previews for this new Journey make it seem like what we’re in for is less along the lines of the King Kong remake and more along the lines of the Thunderbirds movie: Kiddie crap with a bunch of cliched scenes strung together just long enough to (barely) entertain a younger crowd. In 3D.

The HR article quotes Warner Brothers domestic distribution president Dan Fell as saying “3-D is the future, so why is exhibition dragging its feet?” but I have to question that comment. And I definitely question the notion that if Journey doesn’t open big that it’s because there aren’t enough 3-D screens to properly entertain audiences the way the film was meant to.

I mean, come on, the 1959 version of the film, even now, is extremely watchable and, despite its dated effects, dialogue and pacing, still manages to conjure up a dramatic and exciting exploration with a pretty consistent feeling of wonder and awe. If you’re gonna re-make Journey today, it should be a big, serious, epic film, not something geared toward 12 year olds.

And I’m not even gonna address the 1989 remake “starring” Emo Philips.

I guess we’ll see if Journey is actually any good, but I would have preferred a more adult-oriented film by Spielberg, John McTiernan, Doug Liman or even Roland Emmerich, rather than this teenybopper version from a guy whose previous directorial credits include nothing but a few episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess.

But that’s just me.