One of the first things Dwayne Johnson did after arriving in Hawaii to promote his new movie was leave his posh Kahala hotel to connect with his urban Honolulu roots.

The excursion was unrelated to the gathering press junket for "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," the big budget, 3-D film that was shot in Hawaii. Instead, Johnson’s visit to McKinley High School was a personal reminder of the path he had taken — how he had gone from being a teenager in trouble with the law to becoming an international star whose films have grossed $2.1 billion worldwide.

As the 39-year-old Johnson stepped into the same dilapidated McKinley weight room he used as a youth, the tug of nostalgia was powerful.

"I did a lot of my growing up here in Hawaii and it has always represented struggle for my family," he said later. "It was here in Hawaii that I had the notion in my head that I can change my life with my hands. I could maybe build my body and become someone and change my family situation."

Johnson’s new movie, which opens in theaters today, also stars Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman. Hutcherson is the only actor returning from the first film, "Journey to the Center of the Earth," and "Journey 2" is being billed as a sequel in name only.

Johnson, a 6-foot-5 tower of muscle with less body fat than a chicken thigh, is the star of the film, which initially brought him back to Hawaii when it was filmed in the fall of 2010 and then last month for the press junket. Director Brad Peyton, who was here for the junket, said working with Johnson was like working with Superman.

"He is incredibly positive," Peyton said. "He has incredible dedication and incredible passion. He is very genuine and surprisingly humble for someone in his position. And you know he just brings such a presence to the set."

That work ethic started in the McKinley weight room, said Johnson, who found memories in its musky confines.

"Nothing has changed and that’s the beauty of it," Johnson said. "The beauty of that room is it is still a mess, it is still dirty, it is still rusted out. There’s electrical tape holding together a lot of the equipment."

Johnson, who was born in Hayward, Calif., lived in Hawaii off and on. He came from a family of professional wrestlers — his grandmother was the first female wrestling promoter — and his grandfather was a high chief of Samoa. The family lived in a small apartment in McCully behind what was then called Holiday Mart.

But as a McKinley freshman, his bad behavior took center stage. Johnson ran with the wrong crowd.

"We were getting into a ton of trouble," he said. "There were always fights, theft. I even got arrested for check fraud when I was 14. I was troubled and challenged to stay on the right path."

Johnson also played football for the McKinley Tigers. He loved the game, but not enough to stop breaking the law, he said.

Then his family decided to move to the mainland — first to Nashville, Tenn., and then Bethlehem, Pa. On the eve of their departure his parents considered letting Johnson stay with relatives in Hawaii. They changed their minds when he was arrested at Ala Moana after police chased him through the shopping center, Johnson said.

"One of the best things that happened to me was leaving the island," he said.

At the crossroads of his life, dragged kicking and complaining onto an airplane, Johnson found his path. And success came often: first as a standout player on the University of Miami’s national championship football team in 1991, then as a hugely popular professional wrestler — as The Rock he wrestled before live audiences of up to 70,000 — and finally when he transitioned into film with a role in the 2001 hit "The Mummy Returns."

He’s appeared in a range of parts, from action heroes in "The Rundown" and "Walking Tall" to the goofy and comedic in "Be Cool" and "The Tooth Fairy." In the 2010 dark drama "Faster" he was an ex-con hunting down those responsible for his brother’s death.

His role in "Journey 2" is family-friendly. It’s equal parts action and comedy, and he even strums an ukulele while singing "What a Wonderful World." His character, Hank, is a can-do guy trying to understand his rebellious stepson — played by Hutcherson — as they head off to the island originally created by 19th-century author Jules Verne. There are pug-size elephants, horse-size bees, volcanoes that spew golden lava, and Johnson bouncing berries off his pecs like they were pingpong balls.

The writing team behind "Journey 2" said Johnson’s presence required the right touch — and noted that the dancing pecs were Johnson’s idea.

"You can’t just fit him into a role," said Mark Gunn, who worked on the screenplay with his cousin, Brian Gunn, and Richard Outten. "You have to craft a role around his physique and his personality and his pecs. And Dwayne knows his on-screen voice so he is really good at steering the character to where it needs to be so he can hit it out of the park — which he did."

Although the adventure film relies on computer-generated images to create a fantastic landscape, it used an array of lush, color-saturated Oahu locations: Kualoa Ranch, Waimea Valley, Heeia Kea and China Walls.

The locations gave the film a texture that could not be duplicated on a soundstage, said Johnson, who would love to come back to Hawaii to film a sequel.

He had fun here, but it was more than that. It was personal.

"Never did I imagine that I would be able to come back here as someone, as something that I wanted so badly," Johnson said. "It just made it more special."