Dwayne Johnson has crowded the mainstream peripheries of cinema with his recent premieres. His back-to-back projects have been consistently well-received by the audience up until Black Adam crashed the market with its contentious execution and over-the-top hype. The film’s failure to deliver subsequently pitched Johnson as a disappointment and his booting from the mainstream DCU narrative further landed the final blow to his already flailing reputation.
With nerves of steel that rival even the grueling saga of his DC counterpart Henry Cavill, The Rock is well on his way to rebuilding his image and planning a Hollywood comeback.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Dwayne Johnson Invokes Mummy Co-Star, Brendan Fraser
The Mummy franchise’s final installment was a well-pitched film that delivered Dwayne Johnson the very first glimpse into the Hollywood scenario. With a highly contested reception, the threequel and franchise finale did, however, manage to produce a spin-off with Johnson’s character in the lead in The Scorpion King (2002). That subsequently failed as well. Now, two decades later, The Rock and Brendan Fraser are back in the limelight once again and it’s better than ever.
The Rock with Brendan Fraser
Just as the two stars find their way back into people’s favor, however, an old film comes back into the fold that witnessed the retirement of Brendan Fraser and the entry of Dwayne Johnson as his replacement in the sequel. Speaking during a sit-down interview for his film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, the sequel to Fraser’s 2008 sci-fi action-adventure film, The Rock claimed:
“The first movie, Journey to the Center of the Earth was a good movie that did great around the world in terms of box office. We had an opportunity to make [the sequel] better. One of the ways we make it better [is] we take it off the soundstage and we come here to Hawaii where you see the vastness, the beauty of Hawaii, the mountains, the rainforests, and because there’s a texture that makes people go ‘Wow’, especially in 3D. So that’s what we wanted.”
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Journey to the Center of the Earth was one of Fraser’s last great box office performances that witnessed him in the leading role before the actor completely disappeared from the face of Hollywood. The film went on to earn $244M worldwide on a budget of $60M and currently holds a 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dwayne Johnson Defends Replacing Brendan Fraser
In the aftermath of Brendan Fraser’s soft exit, one of his final films found its sequel being helmed by the then-rising force in Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson. His Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was a relatively successful sequel, with enough star power and a convincing plot to draw the crowd into the theatres. However, the questionable replacement of Brendan Fraser never seemed to be a subject of discussion until The Rock managed to indirectly address his predecessor during his sit-down interview for the movie.
Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Johnson’s premise for the sequel being a success and his reasoning behind taking over from Fraser was based on the fact that Journey 2 was one of the first projects to utilize James Cameron’s advanced 3D technology (built in the aftermath of Avatar), and as such, the film which was hinged on giving the audience an all-rounded experience of wonder and amazement was bound to succeed.
At the same time, Johnson’s manner of broaching the subject without pinning down Fraser shows the incredible amount of respect that he held for the veteran actor and the honor with which Fraser deserved to be treated in the aftermath of his absence.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is available for streaming on HBO Max.
