Zathura
Starring: Tim Robbins, Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart
Directed by: Jon Favreau

Released in the US: November 11, 2005
Released in the UK: Christmas 2005

Reviewed by: Adam Mast, ZBoneman.com

Zathura is a new family adventure from Jon Favreau, the director responsible for Swingers and Made. This hip film maker has since delved into more family oriented terrain with Elf and this new effort based on the novel by Chris Van Allsburg (who also penned the similarly themed Jumanji as well as Polar Express).

Young Danny (Jonah Bobo) has it rough. He always finds himself stuck in his big brother’s shadow and his recently divorced dad appears to be too busy with work to give him the attention that he craves. Danny and his brother Walter (Josh Hutcherson) are in for the adventure of a lifetime, however, when Danny discovers a strange board game called Zarhura, stored underneath a stairway in the basement of his father’s massive home. Zathura is no ordinary game though. The moment these siblings begin to play, their father’s house is instantly transported into outer space, and these two bickering brothers quickly learn the meaning of teamwork as they fight off one intergalactic threat after the next.

I really enjoy Favreau’s work. Swingers is hipster cool while Made (a Boneman favorite) is an underrated gem. Elf was a terrific entertainment, and as I watched that particular movie, I could feel Favreau’s love for holiday films in nearly every frame (most notably those entertaining Rankin/Bass stop motion animation holiday specials). With Zathura, Favreau appears to be going for that childlike sense of adventure that was so fluent in youthful 80’s adventures (think Last Starfighter, The Goonies, and Explores), and on several levels, he succeeds.
When our young central characters first begin playing the game, they don’t overreact to the fantastical happenings that begin taking place in their home (including a meteor shower and a malfunctioned robot attack). Rather than questioning what’s happening, they just go with it, and I kind of liked that. The two young actors who play the leads aren’t exactly brimming with unforgettable acting chops, but then they aren’t really supposed to. Zathura isn’t a film ripe with three dimensional characters. This is really a flick about adventure and to the actors’ credit, they do seem to be having a good time.

Dax Shepard (of Punk’d fame) shows up as a lost astronaut with an interesting secret that provides the film with a little twist of sorts. Shepard is somewhat likable, but isn’t necessarily the type of actor whose ready to carry a film on his shoulders. Tim Robbins is terrific as a single father trying to juggle a career and fatherhood. It’s a cliched scenario to be sure, but Robbins pulls it off.

The screenplay by David Koepp and John Camps is well paced, but incredibly repetitious. There are far too many scenes of siblings bickering, and I became increasingly tired of ongoing scenes featuring our two young players drawing cards from the Zarutha board, and trying to figure out how to get out of their next big scrape. But then, what the hell do I know. The mostly young crowd I saw the screening with loved every second of it.

Favreau’s direction is loose. Perhaps too loose. While the movie is never slow, it does have a strange rhythm. Rather than having the story build, some of the cooler scenarios actually occur in the first act. There are various themes here. This is a story of brotherly bonding, fathers and sons, boys becoming men etc., but these themes all take a back seat to the adventurous grandeur of it all, and Favreau is clearly more interested in celebrating the joy (and occasional pain) of being a child.

The special effects are plentiful, and fittingly cartoonish, and I applaud Favreau and crew for using old school creature effects instead of resorting to the usual CGI. In particular, I got a kick out of a race of alien pirates who look like a fusion of Sleestack from Land of the Lost and Gamorrean Guards from Return of the Jedi.

Zathura isn’t classic family entertainment by any means, but it has enough to keep the kids entertained (the children sitting behind me in the screening were giggling for the entire running time). There are even a few jokes aimed at the adults (to my surprise, I was the only attendee who laughed at a really funny line that pays homage to Catherine Hardwicke’s film Thirteen). In the end, I did enjoy Zathura more than it’s companion piece Jumanji, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by it.

Grade: C+