Based on the Chris Van Allsburg book of the same name, Zathura is a movie that received decent reception from critics and audiences at the time of its release. Although I never saw Zathura in the theater, I remember when my family rented the movie one night and I remember loving the bratty and realistic brother relationship as well as the grand scale of the space adventure that the brothers faced. Now that some time has passed, can this movie win over my adult point of view as it won over my kid point of view?
Danny and Walter are two brothers who can never get along with each other. When their father leaves the house to run a quick errand, Danny finds himself in the basement thanks to Walter and comes across an interesting looking board game at the bottom of the stairs. When he tries to show Walter, he simply ignores it saying it’s for babies. Danny starts to play the game by himself when suddenly the card Danny receives from the game starts to come to life as a meteor shower hits the living room shocking Walter in the process. The boys soon after find out that their house has been literary uprooted and sent into outer space. The only way to get home is to keep playing the game until they reach Zathura but Danny and Walter will need to be able to survive whatever the game throws at them and most of all each other.
This movie is my example of taking a 32-page picture book and turning it into a feature-length movie done right. They add a lot and change a lot but the film keeps to the spirit of the book it’s based on while also standing out as its own story. The adventure the characters come across is very entertaining as they encounter a defective robot, an astronaut as an alie, and the scary lizard-like aliens known as Zorgons. As an extra bonus, the story also revolves around brotherly relationships and the responsibility of being for one another. The brothers start out fighting each other but slowly and surely come to accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses. There are also other characters like the brother’s older sister Lisa who gets roped in the boy’s space journey and an astronaut character who is more important to the game than any of the other characters realize. My only complaints would be that Danny and Walter’s arguing can be rather annoying and overstay its welcome sometimes and the flow of their development can be random instead of being smooth. It also may seem a little dated with the subtle product placement in the beginning and it may end up dating the movie.
The movie is quite a visual treat as it combines practical effects with some CGI mixed in. Obviously, nowadays you tell what is CGI and what isn’t because of the time period, but they still are really creative with how they execute the effects like parts of the house being destroyed or the robot attacking Walter or even the impressive costuming of the Zorgons. I like that at the beginning of the movie they have this opening credit sequence featuring shoots of the board game as well as some small animated space-themed segments that showcase the type of movie you’re about to be in for. Lastly, The music is having a lot of fun with itself and it adds to the drama and sci-fi action of the adventure. I like the added addition of the choir music which makes the world of Zathura seem grand and epic.
Despite it having issues in smooth development of characters and somewhat dated pop-culture references in the beginning. Zathura is a film that mostly holds up pretty well and I would consider it the best Chris Vans Allsburg story’s adapted to film. The director Jon Favreau would go on to make even more epic stories like directing the first two Iron Man movies and being a head writer for The Mandalorian. There was definitely a lot of passion and adventurous spirit that was put in to make this an entertaining movie for all ages and that time and effort really does show.
(Final Grade: B+)