For me---having read the book in the new edition from the Naval Press, edited by Frederick Walter and Walter Miller---I can only state that this movie is almost a travesty of Jules Verne's visionary novel. It has never ceased to amaze me and puzzle me that Hollywood never seems to be able to leave well enough alone with important books and stories made into movies, but they have to change virtually everything the author has so carefully written. Do the producers and writers presume to improve upon the great authors? Do they feel that the original is too boring or too out of date for modern audiences? There are precious few books that have emerged from Hollywood unscathed, and this is certainly not one of them.
Review of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
