Trailer Hitch: ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.’ The Rock, Totally Not Beating People Up

Will Leitch
·Editor

The Projector is officially on board with The Rock, family action star. He has always had undeniable movie-star charisma -- he's performing at Wrestlemania this year, which was our first reminder in a while that, oh yeah, he totally used to put on tights and wrestle, like, as his lone job -- and for all his brawn, the guy knows his way around a joke too. So, now he's taking over his own family film franchise with "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," a sequel to "Journey to the Center of the Earth." That's to say, The Rock is taking over for Brendan Fraser. We 100 percent support that transaction. Also: Holy cow, Michael Caine!

Trailer category: "Family action" movie.
Major selling points: The Rock! An adventure for the whole family! Also, that girl from the "High School" musicals.
What successful movies are they trying to remind us of? "Enemy of the State." The Bourne movies. "Salt." "3:10 to Yuma."
"Hey, (s)he's in this?" Luis Guzman. Miniature elephants. Michael Caine!
Line of dialogue that's really what the whole movie is about: "Who's up for an adventure?" (Delivered in Michael Caine-ese.)
Spoilage? Mild. The spoilage here is in the title. Where are they going? An island. Anything special about this island? It's mysterious!
Enticement Percentage Increase: 49 percent. All right, so you have The Rock and Luis Guzman and the kid from "The Kids Are All Right" and Vanessa Hudgens running around Atlantis and landing in dinosaur eggs and riding giant bumblebees and it's in 3D and The Rock is punching things and honestly our inner 11-year-old boy pretty much thinks this is the coolest thing ever. We're telling you: We are not far from The Rock being one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Look out.