Zathura

Review by Jason Donner

It's always a nice feeling to go a movie you think is going to be a complete disaster and then have it turn out to be a pretty enjoyable experience. It's like being set up on a blind date with a girl you think is going to be a complete dog. You dread it for hours and then, when the time comes and the girl shows up, she's a hot fox. All your dread and trepidation goes away and you just have a good time.

Now, I'm not saying that Zumanji... I mean, Zathura is a great movie, but it's not bad. True, it follows the story of Jumanji to the letter from the magical game coming to life to the person trapped in the game and so on and so forth, but in many ways it actually improves on Jumanji's formula. In a sense, Zathura is more magical than its predecessor and it is more enjoyable. Of course, I may just be in the minority here because I really didn't think that Jumanji was that great.

Zathura tells the tale of a couple of brothers stuck alone in their father's house while he's out selfishly making money for them to live on. The little brother gets on his big brother's nerves thanks to his whininess and the little brother feels rejected because the big brother doesn't want to have anything to do with him. He'd rather watch Sportscenter than play a board game with him.

So, while on a little exile in the basement, the younger brother find an old board game called (shockingly) Zathura and, when the kids start playing it they find their house magically transported into outer space where, with the help of their older sister who is unlucky enough to be pulled into the game with them, and a stranded astronaut from the game, they must fight robots, aliens, meteor showers, and gravity fields to get home and, perhaps, learn a little thing about brotherly love on the way since outer space has that effect on people.

The plot's a little threadbare, but the movie is fun enough. As I said, I think I actually enjoyed Zathura more than Jumanji, but then again I never enjoyed Jumanji that much to begin with.

This movie surprised me. It's warm for one thing and doesn't stoop to using Dax Shepard as a comedic doofus for laughs. As a matter of fact, Shepard actually takes his role pretty seriously which really pays off near the end.

Despite some flaws, I really enjoyed this movie even though I was sure that I wasn't going to. I guess its atmosphere of warmth and magic won me over.

Zathura is a cut above most other movies like this. If you loved Jumanji, see it and, if you hated Jumanji... see it too!