After the awful Jumanji, I was hesitant to check out the follow-up to Chris Van Allburg’s fantastical illustrated story. I was relieved to find Zathura far superior, though the plot is so similar as to be a remake. Two quarreling brothers discover a vintage board game while alone in the house. As they play, the game warps reality around them, placing them in the center of adventure and danger. The only way out is to finish the game, though each move takes them closer to potential doom. Instead of Jumanji’s jungle setting, here we have a retro-futuristic sci-fi theme. The board game itself is a cool pressed and painted metal contraption of clockwork gears and colorful spaceship pieces. The toy collector in me was drooling from the opening credits where the game box graphics were extrapolated into a dramatic montage. Setting the game in motion, the brothers discover their house uprooted and floating in outer space, prone to meteor showers, malfunctioning robots and blood-thirsty aliens. Luckily they come upon a stranded astronaut who helps them resolve their sibling rivalries and focus on getting home. Dax Shepard as the astronaut trapped in the game for fifteen years is a vast improvement over the near-identical part Robin Williams played in Jumanji. His presence is essential but understated, just enough to drive the story without becoming a distracting spectacle. Likewise, the fabulous effects and creatures are created by the legendary Stan Winston Studios, giving them a realism that the laughable CGI monkies of Jumanji can’t touch. The film’s faults mainly lie in the simple plotline. No matter what kind of trouble the kids (and their poor demolished house) get in, we know they just ned to keep rolling to eventually fix things. The moral of family needing to pull together to overcome adversity is increasingly beaten over the head, and the boys’ bratty arguments reach an annoying shrieking pitch at times. But as a fun and family-friendly adventure, it’s a trip.

There are no comments yet. You could be the first!