***Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island

Hallmark, 170 minutes, NR

DVD $29.99

From the back cover: “Escaping from a Confederate prison camp by balloon, five survivors land on an uncharted island in the Pacific. Far from a sanctuary, the island is home to carnivorous monsters, bloodthirsty pirates, and the mad genius, Captain Nemo, who inhabits the mysterious island for his own strange ends.”

Kyle MacLachlan stars as Cyrus, a Union Captain who along with his slave Neb (Omar Gooding), a nurse (Gabrielle Anwar) and her daughter Helen (Rosanne Calvert), a Confederate officer who is also a prisoner (Jason Burr) and a young Confederate soldier escape from Libby Prison camp in a hot air balloon. The winds carry them far to the west until just short of an island the balloon springs a leak. Cyrus jumps into the sea to lighten the balloon which crashes on the island. While searching for Cyrus they discover the island is inhabited by gigantic creatures with the young soldier meeting a quick end at the hands (pincers?) of a giant preying mantis. Meanwhile Cyrus awakes in the home of Captain Nemo (Patrick Stewart) who attempts to recruit him to assist with his life’s work, a bomb meant to put an end to all warfare. Cyrus refuses to help until his friends are found. Once the remaining castaways are in Nemo’s compound Cyrus considers Nemo’s offer but ultimately declines causing Nemo to throw all of them out of the compound.

The group begins to build a life for themselves. Helen befriends a young pirate, Blake, when he saves her life and they find another castaway who was abandoned by the pirate 8 years earlier. Together the group begins to build a raft. When the pirates return to the island looking for treasure the castaways have to rescue Helen, defeat the pirates and ultimately escape a raging volcano.

The story was interesting, the characters were more well-rounded than the 1961 version though the Ray Harryhausen’s effects were surprisingly better. The ending was somewhat disappointing, but overall this was worth the time spent and I am now searching out the book to see which movie version comes closest to Verne’s vision. - Stephanie L Bannon