Friday, November 12, 2021

Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)


Director
Jon Favreau

Cast
Josh Hutcherson - Walter
Jonah Bobo- Danny
Kristen Stewart - Lisa
Tim Robbins - Dad
Dax Shepard - The astronaut


When I first saw the trailer for the 2005 film Zathura, it struck me as a rip-off of the 1995 movie Jumanji. Both movies involve a board game that pulls the players into their competition by infringing on their reality.
Little did I know at the time that Zathura is based off a book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg - the author of the 1981 book Jumanji. That makes sense as both stories are about adventures springing from a board game.
I enjoyed the movie Jumanji with Robin Williams a lot. I also enjoyed its 2017 sequel Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and especially the third installment Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). In the latter, Kevin Hart does a hilarious impression of Danny Glover. That's what did it for me!
Zathura, which is a movie that stayed in the back of mind since first seeing that initial trailer, is one I wanted to watch for sometime. I especially thought about it when the Jumanji sequels came out. In fact, Zathura is a Jumanji sequel. I didn't know this until looking into Zathura
In the book Jumanji, which follows the adventures of brother and sister Judy and Peter Shepherd, Walter and Danny (the main characters in Zathura) are their neighbors.
With the movie streaming on Netflix, I finally had the opportunity to watch Zathura with my family a few nights ago. 
In this movie, the sibling rivalry between Walter (Josh Hutcherson) and his younger brother, Danny (Jonah Bobo), has reached a painful peak. 
The brothers, along with their teenage sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart), alternate living between their divorced mom and dad.
When the film opens, they're staying at their dad's (Tim Robbins) house who has an important presentation for work on this particular weekend. He has to cut their four-day stay short by one day.
After the boys argue with their dad about this, one of them accidentally causes a drink to spill over some of the dad's necessary paperwork needed for the presentation later in the day. So, dad is forced to make a quick trip back to his office to print off copies. 
He leaves them in the hands of their older sister who is still in bed at 2 p.m. Of course, she wants nothing to do with them, and doesn't bother getting out of bed.
Walter decides to watch TV while going out of his way to treat Danny in a cold manner as as his little brother wants to do something together. 
Feeling a bit dejected, Danny wanders into the basement and finds a vintage board game called "Zathura" under the basement stairs. The art on the box cover is styled like classic Sci-Fi comic book illustrations. I would be thrilled myself if I found such a treasure. 
The game itself looks enticing. It's a mechanical board that moves by a chain mechanism. It adds to the fascination. 
Danny tries to get Walter to play, but his older brother has no interest in playing as he claims Danny often cheats in board games. 
Regardless, Danny starts the game by winding a key on the board. This causes a roll counter to spin. Two small tin toy rocket ships attached to an automatic mover inside the board serve as the game pieces. When the counter stops, one of the ships moves that number of spaces by itself.
A card then pops out which warns him to take evasive action as a meteor shower is approaching. Just as soon as he reads it, a meteor shower place right there in the living room. 
Soon, they discover their house is floating out in space with Earth nowhere in sight. 
It doesn't take long for Danny and Walter to realize that the only way to get back to Earth is to finish the game.
Jonah Bobo in Zathura: A Space Adventure.
Before that happens, they face off against a defective robot that has gone rogue, are attacked by a fleet of angry lizard aliens called Zorgons, steer too close to a sun, rescue an astronaut, and then watch as the game puts their sister in cryonic sleep causing her to be frozen solid.
In Jumanji some unseen magical or otherworldly force flowing from the board game spits out animals and other jungle creatures into reality as the kids game play progresses. 
However, in this movie, rather than the game bringing creatures and what not into the characters' world, the characters are brought into the world of Zathura.
I love the idea of a board game controlling reality. And the classic mechanical look and structure of the board game is truly intriguing. 
While the moral of the story is an admirable one, the twist is a surprise. But once that surprise factor quickly wears off, questions immediately spring up. Normally I'm in favor of allowing room for the audience's imagination to work. But even then, the plot points still need to make sense.
Spoiler!
In one scene, Walter gets a card that allows him to wish on a shooting star that's going to pass by the house. 
He gets this wish card after having a heated argument with his little brother. When the shooting star passes, the astronaut feels certain Walter is going to wish for something terrible on his brother. It's implied Walter is going to wish Danny would disappear as moments before he blamed Danny for their parents divorce. 
Walter silently makes his wish, and it ends up having nothing to do with his brother.
The astronaut later tells Walter that he played Zathura with his own younger brother years before. During that game, he pulled the wish card. And as they, too, often fought and argued, his wish was that his little brother had never been born. 
He soon deeply regretted this wish, but never had the chance to pull another wish card. And then he got stuck in the game somehow as an astronaut.
Later, when Walter manages to pull a second wish card, he wishes for the astronaut to get his little brother back.
Walter's wish is granted, and the little brother appears in the room with them. That little brother turns out to be Danny.
The astronaut reveals he is Walter as an adult. And he has been stuck in the game for several years. 
I had to Google the synopsis of this movie for an explanation because the logistics were too confusing. Evidently, the astronaut is Walter from an alternate universe who travelled through a worm hole before they found him. The astronaut does mention travelling through a worm hole, but I didn't put that into account at the end of the movie as referring to an "alternate universe." 
Still, it doesn't make sense because when young Danny touches the other Danny, they fuse together through some magical cosmic force. The same goes for both Walters. 
If they're from an alternate universe, they're two separate bodies. The way the movie plays out makes it seem as though the astronaut Walter is a future Walter rather than an alternate Walter. He's an adult after all.
And when young Walter doesn't wish that his brother had never been born, like his older self did, that changes the future. 
Basically, this ending doesn't seem like it was thought through very well.
It still manages to be a fun movie for the most part. I found Zathura entertaining, as did my three kids. 
Kristen Stewart's character is barely a part of the story. She's as much of a side character as a side character can be. Lisa is comic relief, really. During most of the film, she's completely oblivious to what her two brothers are doing and experiencing downstairs. And then she's in a cryonic frozen state for much of her role. 
While the intergalactic catastrophes and great imagery are exciting, most of the reactions, along with any emotion among the characters, is unconvincing. 
The performances, especially Josh Hutcherson, is lacking. That's my biggest complaint. The reactions and choices they make are unrealistic, which is funny to say in a movie that's completely unrealistic. But if the audience is to believe a vintage board game is altering reality in such a remarkable way, then the performances from the actors need to support that. Sadly, they do so very poorly. 
In Jumanji, there's an underlying story between Alan Parrish (Robin Williams) and his relationship with his dad. In Zathura, that attention is on Danny and Walter's relationship. We explore this sibling rivalry which we learn stems from Walter's bitterness towards his brother whom he ultimately blames for their parent's divorce. What's unique when compared to Jumanji is that an older Walter is brought in to encourage his younger self not to make the mistakes he did. It boils down to two brothers realizing how important they are to each other. They need each other in this difficulty of living with divorced parents. Otherwise, they're just lost in space like the astronaut floating out there waiting for someone to rescue him. This moral seems deeper than the films previous installment, Jumanji
How often have we wished we could go back in time to tell our younger selves not to make the mistakes they're going to make. 
This story deserves more exploration - no pun intended. 
Josh Hutcherson as older brother Walter.
I appreciate Director Jon Favreau using practical effects in the movie rather than computer generated ones. He claims in an interview that using costumes and puppets was much more fun to shoot. 
Zathura took a little time to grow on me. 
When all this catastrophe befalls Danny and Walter, they manage to escape harm. It's necessary that they do because, in the end, they're playing a game even with all the danger and risk involved. If one of them were to get hurt or worse, it would cease being a game.
For what it is, I found Zathura subpar compared to Jumanji which has a lot more atmosphere to explore as the wilds of the jungle spread over town. The game Jumanji affects the whole town rather than just the house where the kids are playing it. 
Zathura limits its character to their house that's now like a spaceship. It's a modern day SciFi adventure on par with those from the 1960s when Science Fiction films reached quite the zenith. Unfortunately, I get the impression this movie is obscured by the popularity of the Jumanji franchise. I would love to see Zathura explored a little more. There's so much more imaginative room to visit out in space. There's a lot of potential for an imaginative sequel or Jumanji tie-in. Danny and Walter are relatable characters, and the galactic scenarios within their home are certainly riveting enough to watch. 

Monday, November 8, 2021

The Wild World of Batwoman (1966) - Comic to Movie #13


Director
Jerry Warren

Cast
Katherine Victor - Batwoman 
Richard Banks - Rat Fink
George Andre - Prof. G. Octavius Neon
Steve Brodie - Jim Flanagan
Steve Conte - Bruno
Lloyd Nelson - Heathcliff

I thought I had seen most Batman related movies out there, excluding the Batman serial from 1943 starring Lewis Wilson as Bruce Wayne/ Batman and Douglas Croft as Dick Grayson/ Robin. I haven't seen those yet, nor its 1949 sequel The New Adventures of Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. That stars Robert Lowery as Bruce Wayne/ Batman and Johnny Duncan as Dick Grayson/ Robin. Otherwise, I thought I had seen or heard of the majority of other Batman related movies. I was wrong. I hadn't seen nor ever heard of the obscure shlockfest that is The Wild World of Batwoman until recently.
Oh, by the way, fun fact for fans of the 1989 Tim Burton film Batman, Jane Adams plays Vicki Vale in the 1949 series - the character Kim Basinger played in Burton's movie.
Anyways, no doubt when most audiences out there think of "Batman and Robin," the TV series from the 1960s with Adam West and Burt Ward surely comes to mind.  
It goes without saying that this series was quite an influential show, and helped establish the "Dynamic Duo" into pop culture. During the show's final season, Batgirl (played by Yvonne Craig) is introduced to audiences. Her real name is Barbara Gordon - a librarian and the daughter of Commissioner Gordon.
It was so influential, in fact, that it made some kind of impression on director Jerry Warren. So, he made his own bat film called The Wild World of Batwoman. 
Warren is now known for being a cult cinema director.
I don't honestly know what the true definition of a "cult film" is. Regardless, I feel very comfortable in labeling The Wild World of Batwoman one of them.
Warren directed several other barely remembered films such as Teenage Zombies (1960) and Attack of the Mayan Mummy (1963) which is an Americanized version of an earlier movie from Mexico called The Aztec Mummy. He also directed The Face of the Screaming Werewolf  (1965), Creature of the Walking Dead (1965), and House of the Black Death (1965). 
The Wild World of Batwoman was his last movie until he wrote, produced, composed, edited, and directed Frankenstein Island in 1981 which stars John Carradine.  
I searched quite a bit for this Batwoman movie. I heard it was once featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I'll have to check that out!
A YouTube channel I subscribed to aptly called "Cult Cinema Classics" uploaded this truly obscure movie onto their channel recently. And I watched it out of pure curiosity.  
It's worth mentioning there's another Batwoman film I never heard of until researching this movie. The 1968 movie, produced in Mexico, La Mujer Murcielego (The Batwoman) seems more like a superhero movie than Warren's film. 
According to imdb.com, in that Mexican superhero film, Batwoman (Maura Monti) investigates a mad scientist who is kidnapping wrestlers for the sake of stealing their spinal fluid so he can create a "gill-man." 
Honestly, that sounds so much more captivating than what I was fed while watching The Wild World of Batwoman. 
Warren's movie opens with a trio of young women (normally I would say that's a great start to a movie, but here, it's not) performing a ritual to swear allegiance to Batwoman and become "Bat-girls." Two of the women are novices while the third is leading them. The make an oath to obey all rules and orders handed to them "through the channels."
The lead woman then gives them something to drink as a way to seal their vow.
"Now that you're one of us, I can tell we're vampires alright, but only in a synthetic sense. Drinking the real stuff went out with Count Dracula," the lead girl says.
This opening makes no sense as nothing alluding to vampires ever comes up again. There's nothing vampire related, let alone horror related in the rest of the story. Maybe I'm just reading too much into this opening scene. It was lost on me.
One of them asks what's in the drink. 
Katherine Victor as "the Batwoman."
"Honey, mint, cherry, and strawberry yogurt," the leader says. And they all chug down their nutritious fruit smoothie in allegiance to the Batwoman. 
Then the title spins onto the screen breaking their joyous health kick.
"The Wild World of Batwoman" the title reads against a backdrop of a guy chatting it up with a masked woman dawning a crazy hair-do (Batwoman). There's a small group of young women with them, and they're all in what looks like a comfy living room. 
Batwoman maintains a group of women, who call themselves "Batgirls," to act as agents in her pursuit to stop crime around the city. 
These Batgirls hide around the city and keep an eye out for crime. 
Her arch-nemesis, Rat Fink (Richard Banks) has employed the President and Vice-President of a company called Ayjax Development Corporation to create a powerful hearing aid that uses plutonium as its power source in order to acquire unlimited and supreme eavesdropping capabilities.   
With the help of a mad scientist named Prof. G. Octavius Neon (George Andre) and his lame-brained sidekick, Heathcliff (Lloyd Nelson), they want to sell this device to the U.S. Government. 
As it has unstable power, the government orders them to destroy it. But all involved refuse to do so.
The Ayjax VP requests Batwoman to protect this ultimate hearing aid.
Rat Fink, however, uses a mind altering drug on the Batgirls that makes them dance uncontrollably. 
In one scene when Batwoman is having lunch at a restaurant with the VP, Rat Rink's goons spike bowls of soup to get her, the president, and the Batgirls to start dancing so as to slow them down while he steals the hearing aid.
But they're not slowed down for long. The Batgirls ambush Rat Fink's lair in an effort to retrieve it. 
The movie is as dumb as it sounds. 
I wasn't even interested nor invested in the story accidentally.
First, Batwoman's appearance is certainly the worst look that the 1960s could offer.
She wears a low-cut top with a bat emblem painted directly on her chest just about her cleavage. She dresses in black with one arm in a shaggy covering. She wears a mask, and has a hair style that's one incomprehensible mess of hair pointing in all locations.  
Aside from the bat emblem on her skin, and the word "bat" in her name, there's no other connection to anything truly Batman or DC Comics that publishes Batman comic books. The story doesn't take place in Gotham City. In fact, a shot of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco is used in the backdrop during the opening credits. There's no actual Batman villains. There's no reference to Batman. Batwoman isn't actually Barbara Gordon. Well, the audience never finds out who she really is. We never see her unmasked. Nothing. It's a full-on Batman rip off.
The one thing any superhero movie has, whether humorous or dark, is fighting. In the very least, intimidation. This movie has none of that. Even in the final "climatic" scene, I really don't recall any fighting. I do remember a lot of slapstick shoving, chasing, running around tables, and a complete lack of direction. That's literally what takes place. 
When she's not actually investigating, Batwoman and her crew of gorgeous and unmasked batgirls sit around the living room of her comfortable mid-century home. Or they take the party outside and hang out around the swimming pool. Where ever they decide to chill, they enjoy a few drinks while chatting on their wrist radio watches. 
I suppose back then it may have been considered uncouth or implausible for a woman to brawl against on a bunch of men in a fight and win? I'm just speculating here. Batgirl certainly kicked some villainous male backside on the TV series. I don't know what was stopping Warren's Batwoman. 
Otherwise, Rat Fink, Dr. Neon and all the other men in the movie simply try to outsmart Batwoman, but she outsmarts them back. Woo-hoo! If any young girls looked up to this Batwoman as a model of strength and girl power back in 1966, I feel really sorry for them. They were cheated. 
Dancing! Lots and lots of dancing!
Aside from making a comical sexy flick with a lot of girls and Go-Go dancing, I honestly don't know what Warren is trying to accomplish. It's clearly a rip-off of the worst kind. Again, there's lots and lots of dancing. And Warren makes sure the audience is "treated" to several back-side shots of women Go-Go dancing, or whatever they called it back then. Thanks, but no thanks. 
Stock footage from various films are used in the movie. One scene is taken from the 1950s Sci-Fi film The Mole People. Knowing that makes this already stupid faux Batwoman movie even more pathetic. By the way, English actor Alan Napier stars in The Mole People. He also plays Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler, in the Batman TV series. All these Bat-connections are coming full Bat-circle!  
The acting is blatantly terrible. Lines are clearly scripted. Too much of them are regurgitated with no influx or emotion. 
Other performances, particularly from Lloyd Nelson, is ridiculous and embarrassing to watch. Heathcliff, who's a mindless dimwitted sidekick, is supposed to be the comic relief. I seriously wonder if anyone in 1966 found his performance comical. 
One scene depicts Batwoman and the Ayjax presidents consulting spirits from beyond to tell them where the hearing aid is.
As a deep monotone voice answers back from somewhere unseen, it suddenly breaks into loud, obnoxious Chinese. Again, this is supposed to be the comedy. 
As I mentioned earlier, the 1960s series Batman is what inspired Warren to make his own bat-movie. 
He was supposedly sued for copyright infringement, leading him to change the title to She was a Hippy Vampire.  
The television series' film adaptation, Batman: The Movie was released the same year as this. Miraculously The Wild World of Batman manages to be campier than that. Regardless, this worst of 1966 Bat movies still lingers in the dark, less explored recesses of movie history. 
To quote the real Batman in Batman: The Movie, "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."



The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

" There might be a lot we don't know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of thing...