When the going gets tough, the tough get soppy in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, an old-fashioned, gung-ho adventure based loosely on Jules Verne's classic tales.

Father figures bond with spirited children, grown men cry and screenwriters Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn shamelessly peddle cliches as the narrative glue between impressively staged set pieces.

Directed with vim by Brad Peyton, this follow-up to the 2008 romp Journey To The Center Of The Earth continues the escapades of plucky teenager Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson), who was handed a book about Atlantis at the end of the first film, neatly sowing the seeds of this slicker sequel.

Brendan Fraser is nowhere to be seen or verbally referenced in this second instalment so professional wrestler-turned-action man Dwayne Johnson gamely steps into the fray alongside Hutcherson, plying his usual blend of brawn and self-effacing humour as the plot splices Verne with Robert Louis Stevenson and Jonathan Swift.

Sean has sprouted into a truculent 17-year-old with scant respect for authority; not the local police nor his muscle-bound stepfather, Hank (Johnson).

Following a brush with the law, Sean hides away in his room where he hopes to break a coded distress signal emanating from the South Pacific.

Navy vet Hank breaks the cipher, which confirms the existence of the mysterious island from Verne's 1874 book.

Seeing the boy energised gives Hank an excellent idea: to accompany Sean to the co-ordinates and pick up the pieces when Vernian fantasy turns out to have no grounding in fact.