Race to Witch Mountain
Directed by: Andy Fickman
Written by: Matt Lopez and Mark Bomback (screenplay), Matt Lopez (screen story), Alexander Key (book)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig

This race runs on two tracks – one wins, one doesn’t.

You really have to watch Race to Witch Mountain with both eyes. One to see the movie that was made for an audience of tweenies. The other to judge the movie against an average director’s competency scale. Somewhat schizophrenic I admit but you know Film Junk always takes the big risks for its readers.

Let me say right up front that I enjoyed both movies but one more than the other. With my one eye, I saw a film that could be enjoyed by anyone from 8 -14. It portrays two ingratiating teens that are both heroes and aliens. (Perhaps someone like that lives with you). A cab driver with the heart of a Boy Scout stands in for their parents. And lots of authority figures blow things up in a mostly frustrating effort to catch them. It’s a typical Disney recipe and for this eye, it works really well.

The story has our two siblings – Seth and Sara – crash landing on earth. Their mission is to score some eco-data that will help their parents save their home planet and stop an alien invasion of earth. As you can imagine, the US military is all over the crash, tumbles to the two kids’ arrival, and sets off in pursuit. Fortunately for Seth and Sara, their cabbie is the accomplished race car driver and ex-mob heavy Jack Bruno played by Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock).

And chase is an understatement. It moves at breakneck spread through Las Vegas, into various desert locales, and then on to Witch Mountain. There is a rocketing mosh pit of cars, black SUVs, helicopters, and space ships in a chase sequence that skillfully choreographs mountainsides, train tunnels, explosions, and pounding guitars. When the military campaign flags, an alien commando drops in to keep the pressure on our alien teens. Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino) is introduced as an attractive cosmologist looking for props and maybe a Boy Scout cabbie to hang out with. The Disney wrapping gets a bow on it when Sara “mind melds” with a junkyard dog to gain a new ally for our heroes.

The movie builds suspense quite effectively and although some plot threads are left to fray, the pace keeps the audience engaged in getting Seth and Sara to their spaceship and safely off to their home world.

Then there’s the movie my other eye saw. Not a pretty picture. As you might expect, Dwayne wasn’t known as The Rock for his emotive ability. He tries but he just can’t invest his character with any real conviction. And it’s not like he didn’t have some reasonable lines. They just made me think of how well Will Smith would have delivered them. The two alien teenagers, Alexander Ludwig (Seth) and Anna Sophia Robb (Sara) are pleasantly engaging but nothing more. Carla Gugino as Dr. Friedman is competent with the quips but loses it when a few sentences need to be strung together. It’s a class on how challenging it is to be a good actor.

My second eye was also treated with a lot of “been there, seen that”. Like shots of black SUV’s snaking through desert landscapes; helicopters looming into view to emphasize the desperate state of our “fugitives”. (Exceptionally, the space ship/taxi/train in the tunnel sequence was pretty much a white knuckler). There is a lift from Hancock (the next-to-last Will Smith movie) where Seth stands in front of one of the SUVs and shatters it into pieces. This CGI number worked much better in Hancock. Las Vegas is always a great place to shoot a movie but Race to Witch Mountain doesn’t do much new with the location or the sci-fi conference in progress. Finally a personal preference – I think there should be a legal limit on how many times the phrase “Go go go” can be uttered in a single movie. By my count I heard it at least 14 times and believe me, the effect had worn off after the third time. Where’s the sound editor when you need him?

So where do we come out? It’s a good movie for the tweenies. It does its job. The acting gets the story across, the script is respectable, and it’s all explosions without body parts. Friendship, trust, and caring are demonstrated to be admirable qualities. And the people with those qualities win. Anyway, you probably know you’re not going to Disney for upside down morals or edgy acting. Maybe you’ll luck out with some new effects but not in Witch Mountain I’m afraid. — Curt

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