Zathura: Movie & DVD Review (2005)

(Originally published 2005)

So, the movie is toast. After only a week in theaters and a grim showing at the box office, the new Jon Favreau movie, "Zathura," is ready for a quick exit to DVD. That’s a shame, particularly since the film is superior in every way to that other recent children's film, "Chicken Little," which hopefully will find itself plucked bare, stuffed, roasted and carved on somebody's table come this Thursday.

What sank "Zathura” is its familiar hook.

The movie hails from the beautifully illustrated book by Chris Van Allsburg, whose companion book, "Jumanji," was turned into an inferior (yet popular) 1995 movie with Robin Williams and Bonnie Hunt.

Like "Zathura," "Jumanji" featured a board game that wreaked havoc on the family that played it; the only way out of the chaos was to end the game--no easy feat when elephants and rhinos are bulldozing through your living room.

With the similarities so apparent, audiences stayed away from “Zathura,” a trend likely to continue since today it faces the opening of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” which likely will take whatever was left of “Zathura’s” intended audience and grip them firmly by the muggles until everyone’s allowance is spent.

Here’s a tip for those who might get shut out of "Goblet" due to this weekend’s inevitable sold-out shows--slip into “Zathura” instead. The movie is a rousing sci-fi tale that never panders, with a plot that takes unexpected directions into harrowing rooms.

Mirroring the recent “Serenity,” the film has real gusto, delivering the sci-fi goods with an intelligent script and direction that are backed by swell special effects.

The core of the story is steeped in something real--the bickering sibling rivalry between 6-year-old Danny (Jonah Bobo) and his 10-year-old brother, Walter (Josh Hutcherson), who refuse to get along; the divorce that split their family apart; the distraction of an absent father (Tim Robbins) trying to do his best; and a teenage sister (Kristen Stewart) who is at that age when little brothers shouldn’t exist.

These elements ground the movie in something identifiable, which is key since the moment Danny finds the antique Zathura board game in the basement and pushes the bold red button on its side, the family house zips into outerspace. There, hovering along the fringes of the galaxy, deadly meteor showers begin to pelt the roof, deep freezes have their way with certain siblings, and Zorgon alien attacks aren't just the order of the day--they might end it.

In all, a fine, often genuinely exciting movie that trumps "Jumanji" and especially that other film based on an Allsburg book, the creepy Christmas horror movie with the Nazi undertones, "The Polar Express."

Grade: A-