Under the Mountain (2009)

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN is the big screen adaptation of a young adult novel of the same name that I've never heard of. It's a Kiwi young adult film, sort of Harry Potter style, in which a couple of magical teenagers must team up to battle the forces of evil and, somewhat inevitably, save the world.The first thing that becomes apparent when watching this is that it's virtually Lovecraft for children. You have an evil, sinister family called the Wilberforces, alien races, and long-dormant monsters living deep below the ground, in this case underneath volcanoes. The problem is that UNDER THE MOUNTAIN doesn't do very much with the premise. I love Lovecraft, but it all boils down here to a couple of tentacled guys chasing the kids around, plus some CGI magical power stuff.The cast is largely interesting, aside from 'hook' name Sam Neill, who gives a nicely judged performance as the loner/weirdo who hooks up with the leads and teaches them a few of the universe's mysteries. It's just a pity, then, that the execution is so cheap-looking, and aside from a couple of good chase scenes this doesn't really offer up anything we haven't seen before.

The first thing I faced when I heard of this movie were bad critics. Second, divided opinions of people who've watched this movie. I decided I should take a look and see for myself, being a fan of fantasy movies, and I didn't regret it, but I was not charmed either.The first thing, the actors. Always sceptic about introducing new kids into the movie industry, I tried to keep it objective and on low expectations, and it turned out I didn't have to because Tom Cameron (Theo) and Sophie McBride (Rachel) were really good. They represented their characters on a high level of quality, and for that I congratulate them, since this is their first role in a movie ever. :) Seeing Sam Neill in this movie firstly pleasantly surprised me, and then brought me to the edge of disappointment since he acted like he didn't care of the success of this movie nor his reputation. The rest of the crew was OK.Now the story. The plot has quite a lack of originality in the base of it, but some specific things are pretty interesting, which I won't reveal here in case you haven't watched the movie. The story is a bit slow at moments, but not too much, though it is kind of in fragments. Its development didn't come out well so the end comes suddenly. Btw, the ending scene is really the best scene in the movie.The visual effects are well done, though there's a lack of those. The kids didn't use their powers much. The drones are scary, but the Gargantuas are nothing fearsome, and they should've been the scary of the scary since they're monsters ready to destroy Earth. The atmosphere is spooky, though a bit too gray and dull at times. I had a feeling I had to see something colorful and vivid after seeing this movie. I was grossed out a few times by some scenes, which is good since that was the point, so my opinion is that the visuals are very well done.The music was keeping the tension the story didn't have at moments, so it came out a bit too intensive.At the end, this movie is not a masterpiece, and definitely not for those who aren't fans of the genre, but it definitely isn't bad and unwatchable. Because of Sophie and Tom, this one has a 6 from me.

I remember reading the book and watching the TV series as a child, so when I saw this was out in the DVD stores I was excited to revisit a part of my childhood.Unfortunately, this film compares poorly to the 80s TV series. The 80s TV series had a darkness and chill surrounding the Wilberforces that had shades of Doctor Who about it. A lot of the darkness and suspense is lost in this film. It spends a good 40-50 minutes before Rachel and Theo (and the audience) is even let in on the plot. Now this might be excused in some films, if the buildup is engaging enough, but it simply comes across as disparate events that seem to have no real bearing on the story. I felt that they felt obliged to include certain scenes because they were iconic from the TV series, yet they were divorced of all context in this film. Given the length of the film, the twins needed to meet Mr Jones earlier to bring everyone into the plot earlier and allow the suspense to build.Overall, I would advise anyone to give this a miss and try to find the original TV series - some of the episodes are on google video.

I saw Under the Mountain at the cinema and recently purchased the DVD. My teenage sons loved the film as did I. New Zealand is on a roll lately and Under the Mountain shows what can be done with a load of kiwi talent and a cracker story.Sam Neill is fantastic, as always, but what really stood out for me were the two leads. Gone are the days of stage acting in our movies, a perfectly pitched performance from all. I'm looking forward to seeing what Mr King makes next, he is clearly an incredibly talented man.The visual effects are amazing, as expected from having WETA involved.I recommend this movie to anyone who loves to be entertained, suitable for the entire family. The DVD has a great making of as well.9 out of 10