Film Review - Race to Witch Mountain

It's not often you find an action movie as dark as Race to Witch Mountain, or a scary film so well aimed at the younger end of the market. In this reboot of the Witch Mountain franchise director Andy Fickman brings us a film about belief and faith in the unknown, in yourself and in those you depend on.

The film opens with a montage history lesson showing a faithful record of UFO sightings from around the world, providing even a young viewer with a brief introduction to the subject matter. Fickman is a confessed enthusiast of UFO interests and his treatment of the subject is honest, showing both the serious and goofy sides of the UFO fraternity.

The movie follows two teenagers Sarah (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) who hire taxi driver Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) as they race to the titular destination. These kids soon display a range of special abilities that assist in their journey, leading Jack to learn they are aliens, who crashed on Earth, and must succeed in a mission of great importance.

Hunting them down is an alien assassin, designed by the studio who built the costumes for Alien and Predator. Also seeking them out are a bunch of government agents led by actor Ciarán Hinds (Caeser in the TV series Rome).

Pursuit from one or the other of these enemies supplies the source of drama and action throughout the movie, with chases ranging from the spectacular to the predictable. Sarah and Seth use their abilities, and Jack uses his skills and fists to evade danger time and again leaving any child in the audience on the edge of their seats, though most grown ups may struggle to feel engaged.

The real appeal for the mature audience might be the witty one-liners scattered throughout the film. In truth I suspect unless you were a fan of the original Witch Mountain films this will be a movie you sit through while your kids enjoy it. But if you do remember the first two films then the hints of continuity reaching back to the seventies and the cameo appearances from the original child actors, Kim Richards (Tia) and Ike Eisenmann (Tony) now all grown up, will make the movie magical.

Disney have managed to weave together action and adventure at a level suitable for children as low as seven or eight, and a story with levels of complexity and themes that should engage young teens up to the ages of fourteen or fifteen.

In the original Escape to Witch Mountain Tia and Tony presented a pair of otherworldly teenagers, who are experiencing a disconnect that teens the world over have to struggle through, but as that film closed the twins embraced that difference leaving humanity behind. In this film Sarah and Seth have that initial feeling of alienation and distrust but as their story draws to an end they learn to open up to their friends and embrace the more human elements of their nature.

In the current media there's a lot of focus on kids with special powers, such as certain orphaned wizards. In Sarah and Seth's story kids will find two teenagers they can identify with whilst escaping from the mundane for a while through impressive displays of psychic powers. As the characters develop over the length of the film and reach their trade mark Disney happy ever after, Sarah and Seth show that it's not all that bad being human. And as the credits roll the feeling of excitement and fun will stay with children for the duration of the drive home.