Stories ancient & modern; archaic & current

What does one do during the long summer vacation when everything around is closed and all that is left is the luxury of sleep? One digs up old books turned into films on the big screen and replayed on television. Or one ventures into one of those new action series aiming to hopefully become another Thor or Captain America or Spider-Man. Which is exactly what we did in reading the Philippine edition of Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and watching the kiddie version of Agent Cody Banks.

We have never been to Iceland, and can’t stand cold. But when we started reading this pocket book A Journey to the Centre of the Earth which told of the Norwegian princes who ruled Iceland in the 12th century, something in its ancient and archaic storytelling made us continue reading ’til the end.  

Professor Hardwigg was a weird sort of person, a geologist who studied the “runes” language of the ancient Icelanders. A famous 15th-century explorer Arne Saknussemm had left difficult-to-decipher notes on his last voyage which started on the western coast of Iceland, past its capital city Reykjavik, through mountains and craters, all of which would lead to the center of the Earth. Hardwigg studied the notes, convinced they were meant for him, prepared his nephew Harry Lawson to accompany him, enlisted a guide and climber Hans Bjelke, and they were ready for the journey.    

Suffice it to say that after many months of travel on foot, by boat, through volcanoes and down craters, encountering dead ends, a cold unlike any other experienced by climbers, loss of food and water, near starvation and dehydration, the party finally reached its destination and was duly honored.

 The Philippine edition is a handy booklet that can be carried inside one’s bag. It is apparently one of those abridged versions, translated from French into English, meant for an English class of Junior High School, that landed on our lap. Even the names of the major cast in the book have been changed, and although others are disturbed by this practice, we welcome it as merely an innovation that helps make youngsters understand the story better. After reading the booklet, the students will be better prepared for the other famous Jules Verne classics like Around the World in Eighty Days, 20 Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Five Weeks in a Balloon.

Another summer adventure we enjoyed ourselves tremendously if unexpectedly, was watching the TV version of the initial screen showing of Agent Cody Banks subtitled Save the World. Get the Girl. Pass Math. For a change, we told ourselves, we were on to something modern and current.

Fifteen-year-old actor Frankie Muniz as Cody Banks finds himself in a summer camp called Kamp Woody which is actually a training camp for young CIA agents. His parents hope that through the camp, Cody will overcome his shyness. After all, he is already in his teens, but can barely bring himself to approach a schoolmate. As Agent Cody Banks in the MGM-produced film, Frankie meets and gets friendly with his campmate Hilary Duff as Natalie, and in the process is introduced to her genius of a father who has been working on the creation of indestructible robots.

Much of the action film, however, deals with the romantic relationship between Cody and Natalie, until he begins to lose his shyness, reveals his actual role as CIA spy to Natalie, and after a series of interesting action sequences with enemies of the CIA, Cody ends up kissing Natalie at the movie’s ending.

Upon reading of a sequel, we tune in on Agent Cody Banks Part 2 and find that Frankie is the only actor retained. He has been given a new love interest. Even the original director had been changed. Although Agent Cody still has its summer training camp based at Kamp Woody, Cody’s new assignment brings him to England to track down a double-agent who has made off with an experimental mind-control machine.

We don’t know if it has to do with the changes in casting, but Part 2 did not perform even close to Part 1. We have not been appraised of what will follow.

(E-mail your comments to [email protected] or text 0917-8991835.)