Once more into the breach

Brendan FRASER has gone subterranean for his newest popcorn offering and, frankly, can you blame him? After chasing down the undead in Egypt, Morocco and, coming next month -- just in time for the Olympics -- China (with “The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon”), it’s probably nice to go someplace where you don’t need to slather on the sunblock and compete with hordes of scene-grubbing extras.

You would have to look deep under the lava rock to find any bit players lurking in “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which qualifies as one of the most underpopulated science-fiction opuses since “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Geared toward kids of an age group more conversant with Dr. Seuss than Jules Verne, this rambunctious and ridiculous 3-D version seems intent on curtailing the actorly histrionics in favor of reptilian creatures that thwack, rubber-band style, in our faces.

Verne’s 1864 classic has rarely been wanting for screen interpretation, at least in the last half-century. Multiple theatrical and made-for-television versions have tumbled from both sides of the Atlantic, including a Spanish version, an animated American TV series and an animated French film featuring, respectively, the voices of Ted Knight and Pierre Richard. For stateside baby boomers, none of these incarnations has succeeded in eclipsing the memory of Henry Levin’s 1959 film, which boasted voluptuous Bernard Herrmann scoring, dandy dinosaurs and the soup-to-nuts casting of James Mason, Arlene Dahl and Pat Boone.

While the 2008 remake hugs closer to the family axis of Verne’s story than that version, its action-film spirit owes more to theme park rides in Tokyo and Denver that were loosely patterned after the book.

Fraser wears his rumpled-professor mask as Trevor Anderson, a scientist continuing research on volcanic tubes left unfinished by his missing brother Max, a self-proclaimed “Vernanite” who believed the author’s fictional maunderings to be the gospel truth.

Temporarily saddled with the care of Max’s feisty son, Sean (Josh Hutcherson), Trevor hauls the boy to Iceland, where he hopes to get to the bottom of mysterious seismic disturbances charted by his brother. There, he engages the services of a comely blond named Hannah (Anita Briem), whose late father was also adherent to Max’s “Vernanite” science. (Verne himself might be amused to know that Hannah has been revised from the novel’s Hans, a dramaturgical sex-change operation presumably implemented to provide an object of desire for both the hero and his gawking nephew).

Until a hiking mishap plummets the trio downward into a land of giant mushrooms and neon-lit birds, first-time director Eric Brevig (a visual effects ace from “Total Recall” and “Pearl Harbor”) teases the audience with a droll vaudeville of little 3-D stunts designed to demonstrate what the state-of-the-art RealD technology can do. Brendan Fraser freaks who have long been pining to see their idol expectorate toothpaste and water in their laps will be happy to know that their wait has come to an end.

The domestic high jinks of the film’s opening minutes show off the RealD system to better effect than subsequent scenic shots of Iceland, which evoke the quaint stereopticon look of old View-Master photo cards. Similarly, the rush of underground action sequences that comprise the film’s second half work up a whirligig momentum without being especially heightened by the 3-D technique. An extended mining-car roller-coaster ride is fine as far as it goes, but may induce a nostalgia for Cinerama among audience members old enough to recall the visceral tingle of that sadly short-lived process.

Ultimately, “Journey to the Center of the Earth’s” minor-league visual pleasures will be most enjoyed by those with the smallest number of celluloid reference points, preferably those who have started going to the movies after “Jurassic Park” or, better yet, the Harry Potter films. It is to these innocents, presumably, that the three leads have pitched their performances, which calls for much terrified yelling and screeching of the oops-I’ve-fallen-into-a-black-hole variety.

None of the creatures or scenic conceits are half as phantasmagoric as a facetious moment when Sean gets a cellphone signal hundreds of miles beneath the Earth’s surface. If wireless technology has a few years to go before achieving that milestone, it is heartening to report that the streamlined RealD 3-D glasses are a vast improvement on the galumphing, Magoo-like goggles of the past. With any luck, the geeks in charge of visual effects will refine them down to disposable contact lenses in time for “Journey to the Center of the Earth 2.”

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MPAA rating: PG for intense adventure action and scary moments. Run time: 1 hour, 32 minutes. In general release.