Zathura - take your kids (1 Viewer)

[Adam_S]

I was very surprised by Zathura, it's not a great movie, but neither does it suck. The two lead children perform adequetly, but the interaction they display (and sense of brotherhood) is absolutely top notch. It's a fun, thrill ride for kids that doesn't pander, won't bore and will entertain adults too. The film is mostly all physical effects, with puppets by Stan Winston and a smattering of CGI to fill in the gaps. It has the cleverness, mild scares, and charm of an 80s fantasy childrens film like Goonies, Gremlins, ET etc.

The comparison to Jumanji is inevitable. I like Jumanji, and this is a better film, it doesn't have the equivalent of a Robin Williams schtick and it follows the same basic formula, but it works, overall, much better, on the strength of the kids seeming more like real brothers.

The film gets a bit cheesy in the end (surprise!) and I think they missed an oppurtunity for something more, by taking the route they did with a character, but I'm willing to forgive them because I was entertained and it does work.

and if you can accept that a tin-toy board game can make a house fly into outerspace, then you can accept that the laws of vaccums and space and physics don't apply in the least bit. This is fantasy for kids, not hard scifi.

This movie will probably get buried, but it might truck it out through the holidays, an excellent alternate if Harry Potter is sold out.

If I were ten, this movie would rock my world.

:star::star::star: (out of four)

Adam

 

[Raasean Asaad]

How about if you were six? Are the monsters scary? My daughter wants to see this and Harry Potter but I'm not so sure if she'll be scared by the monsters in this one.

 

[Adam_S]

I'd imagine Harry Potter would be a lot scarier than Zathura.

Zathura is more like a roller coaster, the scares come from the thrill ride part.

Zathura features Zorgons which are giant lizard men, they are shot dark with 'scary' lighting and it is spoken of how they 'eat meat, and we're meat!' but no real harm comes to anyone. The movie is suspenseful and thrilling more than scary.

If I were six I'd probably be intensely into the movie and little bit worried about what would happen and that they would be safe, but rest assured, the boys will survive perfectly but just a little scuffed.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

Thanks Adam ! Looks like a fun film, we'll be going.

 

[ZacharyTait]

I saw this tonight and enjoyed it. IMHO, it's a lot better than Jumanji. I liked how the special effects weren't top of the line, but rather beat up.

I liked how the movie made no explanation whatsoever for the kids being able to survive in space, but it didn't need to.

The kids and Tim Robbins were terrific, Dax Shepard was funny, and all I'm going to say about Kristen Stewart is jailbait!

One revelation at the end had me going ewwww! Those who've seen it know what I'm talking about.

Is it me or does Dax Shepard and Zach Braff look a lot alike?

 

[RyanAn]

I really enjoyed the movie... I was surprised at the language in two of the scenes, but I suppose those are the times. I mean, 10 or 15 years ago you could not say certain words, and now you can. Those words: dick and beeeotch


Anyways, I would recommend the movie, it's like Jumanji in Space, but with a more upbeat pace, it's shorter, and a fun atmopshere.

/5

Ryan

 

[Kirk Tsai]

Really liked this movie too. Jon Favreau really knows how to pace his movies, and his comic timing is very good. The only downside is that the brothers' constant confrontation can get a little tiring; but that's forgivable, it's the whole moral of the story. This is probably the best destruction-for-fun movie of the year. Roller coaster is the right description.

 

[Adam_S]

um I'd say that movies ten or fifteen years ago had more kids swearing in them than the mostly squeaky clean stuff today.

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

Penis breath!

My kids liked this a lot. At one intense part I turned to my six year old son and asked if this was too scary for him, and his response was "This is so cool - can we get the DVD?"

The downside was that the whole moral was pretty much lost on my kids and it just taught them how to fight more effectively.

 

[Diallo B]

this comes out on dvd tomorrow.

i didn't see it. why did it do so bad in the box office?

it only grossed 28 million. for all of the publicity it got i am surprised that it did so poorly. (apprentice, over bearing amount of t.v. and print.) it probably did not make its money back from the advertising.

anyone know, why it did so poorly?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Because everybody already saw it when it was called Jumanji?

 

[Andy Sheets]

Wasn't it overshadowed by other releases at the time? Also, while it wasn't a bad film, I thought it was pretty bland.