Director
Jon Favreau
Cast
Josh Hutcherson - Walter
Jonah Bobo- Danny
Kristen Stewart - Lisa
Tim Robbins - Dad
Dax Shepard - The astronaut
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.
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| 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.
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| Josh Hutcherson as older brother Walter. |
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.
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