Movie Review - 'Race to Witch Mountain'

Race to Witch Mountain Featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, and Alexander Ludwig Directed by Andy Fickman Rated PG

It's hard to argue that any other movie studio is so closely associated with its films than Disney. Part of that has to do with a long, successful history with animated films, but the studio has been making live-action family films for over half a century. While you might not be able to remember which company logo comes before the featured attraction for Titanic or The Godfather, the exact opposite is true with Disney. Almost without fail, you can identify the studio that made Herbie the Love Bug and The Parent Trap. So when Disney remakes its own films, it has a natural advantage of familiarity. Unlike remakes of, say, 3:10 to Yuma, when two generations of moviegoers see the words "Disney's Race to Witch Mountain," that means a third generation will probably create its own memories and warm fuzzies. Or at least that's the plan. This new Race to Witch Mountain lacks nearly everything that made the original so successful 30 years ago. The premise is almost too simple to screw up: Two aliens (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) crash their spacecraft in the Nevada desert, raising the suspicion of agents at Area 51. The aliens are looking for a specific Earth element, and in order to get it, they hail a cab in Las Vegas driven by one-time felon Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson). And then it's a race to Witch Mountain. Again, this is a hard concept to get wrong, especially for a family film. But Race to Witch Mountain is almost never entertaining, is filled with atrocious dialogue and surprisingly low-level visual effects, and in almost every way, fails to improve upon the first movie. And no, this doesn't have to have an Oscar-winning screenplay, but it should exhibit, oh, I dunno, competence. Yes, there's more action but that's principally a sign of the times. The kids can do some more interesting things with their advanced alien minds, again a byproduct of the filmmakers having better technology at their disposal. But it's undone by a real lack of depth. You just never care. The formula is so pervasive that you never have to care, because it unfolds to the letter exactly how your first impression tells you it will. Once the ailens get into Jack Bruno's cab, the entire movie more or less flashes before your eyes. And that would be OK if the occasional attempts at comedy worked or if the Jack Bruno character ever acted as if these were aliens and not just teenagers he's driving around. There's not much joy here. As good as AnnaSophia Robb was in Bridge to Terabithia, she looks trapped playing the emotionless alien. And hers is the best performance in the whole movie. What would have or could have made this better? A sense that the story needed to be retold, maybe. There simply aren't enough involving moments in Race to Witch Mountain to justify the update, or as Gene Shalit might say, to make you race to Witch Mountain. I am most disappointed in Dwayne Johnson, the former pro wrestler known as The Rock. When he first started making movies, Johnson had a real charm and easy, believable presence. But over the past several years, he's lost his tenacity, the need to prove something to people. Well, he needs to prove something again.
Watch the Race to Witch Mountain trailer