Recently I stumbled across Flight of the Navigator, a Disney sci-fi movie from the ‘80s that I used to watch endlessly with my Cub Scout buddies when it first came out on VHS, and was surprised to find how well it held up to my adult eyes. Zathura is destined to be that same kind of movie, a quality-crafted future classic beloved by kids now and sure to stand the test of time when they get older. Granted, Zathura isn’t for all kids. It’s far too intense for little ones, but bigger kids should find it a blast and I’m betting their parents will too.
Two feuding brothers are left to their own devices in their dad’s creepy old house when they stumble upon an antique motorized tin board game called “Zathura.” As they begin playing, the brothers quickly discover that whatever happens in the game actually happens to them as the house blasts off into space and they encounter carnivorous aliens, meteor showers and a homicidal robot! If that sounds suspiciously like Jumanji to you, there’s good reason. Chris Van Allsburg, who wrote the original book that Zathura is based on, also wrote the book Jumanji. The extremely flawed film version of Jumanji did absolutely nothing for me, but thanks to the vision of director Jon Favreau, Zathura is less “Jumanji...in space!” than it is “Jumanji...but good!”
I’ve praised Favreau before on this web site, so I won’t repeat myself except to say that he still hasn’t disappointed me yet with his directing abilities. And Zathura is quite a stretch from both Elf and Made. Favreau’s experience with comedy helps make sure all the jokes hit in this one, but by-and-large this is a solid sci-fi adventure flick. I’m only disappointed he didn’t cameo in this one like he did in Elf. Then again, when there’s only five total on-screen roles to be had, I can easily understand why he didn’t.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Glad to see Favreau expanding as an artist, but I hope to see another film with him and Vaughn soon.
2 - Justene
We saw this and the whole family enjoyed it. I thought it might be too intense for younger children but I heard no sounds of freaked out little ones and the few I looked at while leaving the theater all seemed fine. One 4-year-old was engaged in conversation with his mother about why she jumped.
3 - Temple Stark
This is an Blogcritics editors' pick of the week. Click HERE to find out why.
Also, NEW this week, we are requesting the honor of your very own "best of the week that was" pick for showing an interest and a dedication in your own writing, and as a second thank you for writing well. I will be e-mailing you separately on this as well, but for a little more info read the top of the link above.
Cheers. - Temple, BC editor / Special Projects Director