Review of Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) by Markb. — 04 Jan 2006

After the past comes the future, after The Flintstones came The Jetsons, and after Jumanji came this. Both Zathura and Jumanji were based on children's books by Polar Express author Chris Van Allsburg, who exploits opposite ends of the same premise: kids get sucked into an unfamiliar, potentially deadly world or universe by playing a mysterious, old-school board game.

But while Jumanji was a rather nasty piece of work that relied all too heavily on its unconvincing special effects, Zathura is a surprisingly effective entertainment. Perhaps the director made the difference: Jumanji helmsman Joe Johnston specializes almost exclusively in SFX films (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park 3) while Zathura's Jon Favreau is first and foremost an actor, which (along with this film's modest budget) allows him to focus on characterizations as he tells the story of two bickering brothers (Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson) who learn some valuable Life Lessons as the game literally whisks them and their house into outer space, where they're forced to do battle with meteors and Zorgons.

Favreau makes excellent visual use of light and darkness in building tension and suspense, gets a hilarious performance from Dax Sheppard, who both channels and parodies a slightly dissipated Harrison Ford as a stranded astronaut the boys encounter, and benefits from a solid script that plays fair with the audience as it plants seemingly insignificant clues and plot details that later bloom with some very surprising and satisfying payoffs.

Minus points, however, go to Zathura for its noticeable strain of sexism; we see the boys' father (Tim Robbins) but never his mother (which makes the film's choice of golden oldie for its closing credits theme both peculiar and puzzling), and their big sister is depicted as a clueless, boy-crazy ninny who, in the script's one unconvincing aspect, is kept out of the loop as much as can be gotten away with.

Nevertheless, Zathura is a witty, diverting thrill ride for audiences of all ages...