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'Zathura' is a thrill ride for the kids

By MELINDA ENNIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Zathura" launches the 10-year old "Jumanji" into outer space. Although it too predictably stays the course of its predecessor, it's enough of a blast to provide a thrill ride for the kids and be an entertaining (and inevitable) journey for parents.

Continuing the theme from children's author Chris Van Allsburg's two story books, kids enter the world of a board game — this one dealing with space adventures rather than the jungle hijinks of "Jumanji."

Sony Pictures

'Zathura'

B-

The verdict: Kids will love this intergalactic "Jumanji" redeux while parents might get a bit lost in space.

Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, Tim Robbins
Run time: 95 minutes
Release date: Nov. 11, 2005
Rating: PG for fantasy action and peril, and some language.
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The always dependable presence of Tim Robbins as the kids' dad helps make the voyage more enjoyable for grown-ups. His early scenes are convincingly familiar as he struggles to balance limited quality time as a divorced father with job demands. The kids include two boys, Walter (Josh Hutcherson), 10 and Danny (Jonah Bobo), 6, as well as petulant teenage daughter Lisa (Kristen Stewart), who's disdainful of the others.

When Robbins tries to rouse her from bed at 2 in the afternoon to watch the boys while he attends a business meeting, she dismissively tells him she has to "hook up" with some friends and rolls over.

The boys (as anyone who has boys knows) fight incessantly in a competion for dad's affection. When he leaves them with their sister, their aggression turns nasty. Walter sends Danny down into the basement as retribution for getting beaned in a baseball attack. Down there, Danny finds the old board game, circa 1950, called "Zathura." He takes it upstairs and begs his brother to play.

The next thing you know, there's a meteor shower in the living room, and the boys open the front door onto what looks like the satellite path around Saturn's rings.

Director Jon Favreau ("Elf") does a yeoman's job of serving up the story. The retro, "Forbidden Planet" feel of the film's space adventures is effective, including a "Robbie the Robot"-style mechanical menace.

The space aliens who terrorize the kids are called the Zorgon. They're giant, lizard-like, carnivorous monsters — news that makes the relieved Danny say, "Good, they only eat meat." Then he's reminded: "Dude, you are meat."

Oddly, the film stalls (for parents at least) when the intergalactic adventures begin. The film too exactly follows the "Jumanji" contrivance of the kids' having to continue playing the game to get back home, and there's a derivative time-warp plot device as well.

But the movie thrillingly entertained the 10- and 11-year old audience at the screening I attended, loudly applauding the finale. And the film's message of brotherly love and understanding is one that only the most confirmed cynics would challenge. It's a message worth repeating for young filmgoers.