For years, stories have circulated about a secret place in the middle of the Nevada desert, known for unexplained phenomena and strange sightings. It's called Witch Mountain, and when a Las Vegas cab driver (Dwayne Johnson) finds two teens with supernatural powers in his cab, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of an adventure he can't explain. They work together to discover that the only chance to save the world lies in unraveling the secrets of Witch Mountain, and the race begins.

If you have seen the original Escape to Witch Mountain and were expecting something in the same vein you will probably be quite disappointed. The original Witch Mountain had that very 1970’s Disney feel to it when the times were more innocent and Disney was all about making very family oriented films. It is the kind of film that would be a very hard sell for today’s youth who are much more cynical and much more immerged in technology. So what the new Race to Witch Mountain does is it takes the general storyline of the original revamps it for today’s audiences. The basic story is still there but the film is flashier, it is a lot more special effects driven and for me at least quite a bit more entertaining. I find the original a little too Disney sugary sweet and the remake a lot closer to today’s climate of fear and an overzealous government that thinks they know all and need not answer to anyone.

There are two major changes from the original and the remake and the first change is replacing the over zealous millionaire who wants to use the alien siblings for his own personal gains with an over zealous government who wants to dissect them for its own personal gain. The later is a lot more likely and feels a lot truer and it gives the film a much better grip on reality. The original storyline was a very generic Disney storyline that gave its villains faces but not much purpose after that. The film does have a much more X-files feel to it because of that rather than the traditional vanilla villain feel of the original. Conspiracies and a blundering government that would destroy us all just because it thought it knew better gives the movie a great subplot to that of two alien siblings who happen on Earth and are just trying to get home.

The second major change in the film is special effects. The siblings in the original had powers but they were powers that didn’t require a large FX budget the same can't be said this time around. The siblings have grown a lot more powerful this time around and so has the special effects which weren’t that advanced when the original came out. There is a lot more explosions, a lot more car chases and action and a lot more excitement to the film. And that is what the film greatly improves on from the original is excitement. The film is a lot more entertaining, faster paced with a lot more action and special effects.

I like Dwayne Johnson and he seems to found the role as the new family go to big guy for Disney. He reminds me a lot of when Arnold tried his hand at comedy in the early 1990’s and there is something comical about a large well built man doing prat falls and physical humor that you wouldn’t expect from someone their size. The Rock has lots of charisma and he does command the screen when he is on it and it makes him perfect for movies like this. I am not a big fan of kid actors but Alexander Ludwig and Anna-Sophia Robb do an ok job for two virtually unknown actors up to this point. Race to Witch Mountain was better than the original which is rare in today’s world of remakes and quite an entertaining film.

Grade: B