'Journey To The Center Of The Earth' (PG): (out of four)

Put on your 3-D glasses and get ready for a movie that's more like an amusement park ride than some average big-screen adventure.

Honestly, if you have to catch the movie "flat," rather than in 3-D, it may not be worth the trip. If you haven't noticed, there's a boom once again in 3-D movies. The movie trickery hit its peak in the 1950s as filmgoers flocked to see "It Came from Outer Space," "House of Wax," and "The Mad Magician," to name a few.

Now, with high-definition and digital capability, filmmakers are flocking to make movies in 3-D. "Journey to the Center of the Earth is the first live-action, narrative motion picture shot in digital 3D. And it's definitely a story ripe for the high-tech picking.

Brendan Fraser, who takes on yet another role as a nice guy stuck in a terrifying situation, plays Trevor, a geology professor in a small college whose quest for volcanic eruptions and odd rocks is really what makes him tick. By day he teaches, but by night he's trying to carry on what his lost brother, a "Vernian" -- a follower of novelist Jules Verne -- was trying to prove; that there is another dimension inside the core of the center of the Earth.

Trevor's life is fairly mundane until his nephew, Sean (Josh Hutcherson) shows up and points out a blip on a computer screen that Trevor has been waiting to discover. And quicker than booking a trip on Orbitz, the duo have plane tickets for Icelandic Air and are off to the cold country to find a "Vernian" professor who may hold the key to the explorer's disappearance. While they don't find the professor, they do find his daughter, Hannah (Anita Briem) , who is as eager to find out about her father's disappearance as Sean and Trevor are about their lost relative, too.

Naturally, she's a guide and hiker and can take the two inquisitors to the top of a mountain and back again. As in all good action adventures, things go awry and they are hurled into the unknown. Finally when they dramatically arrive at their destination, it's time for an announcement: "Ladies and gentleman, I give you the center of the earth," says Trevor.

The film plods along in many parts until the 3-D spectacles kick in. The journey has prehistoric creatures and oversized Venus fly traps that are truly special effect wonders. There's no skimping here in the action department. Hold onto your hats (or, glasses) as you join the adventurers on a rickety car in an old mine railway that will keep you guessing.

The cast makes everything believable even when it's at its most nonsensical. "Haven't you ever seen a dinosaur before?" Sean asks. "Not with skin on it," replies Trevor as they escape the drooling snap of prehistoric teeth.

Yet it's the 3-D glasses that set the movie apart from most everything else out there this summer, including "Indiana Jones." Where else can a yo-yo get kids excited enough to laugh with glee in the digital era?