Release Date: November 11, 2005

(out of 4)

"Zathura: A Space Adventure" is intended for youngsters between the ages of 8 and 12, I’d guess, but that’s an estimate that I’m willing to be a little flexible with. That's not to say that anybody clearly outside that age bracket should for a moment consider seeing it. I imagine if I were 8-years old, I would have found it adventureous. The special effects can be neat and the action is breathless. But the film exhausted the adult in me from the get-go, because the script depends on an assembly-line of gimmicks much too callous for me to care anything about. And yes, if you were wondering, a good family film can bring out the kid in me if it’s done well enough.

It’s really "Jumanji" with Robin Williams done over again – no surprise that it is by the same childrens book author Chris Van Allsburg. In this outing, two bickering kids (Josh Hutcherson as the ten-year old, Jonah Bobo as the six-year old) open up an old game board called Zathura that has been collecting dust down in their basement, and once they start playing they are aghast by the game’s magic powers. The game pieces move on their own, the ejected cards emit prophetic messages, and a meteor shower literally pummels their home not before long. Tim Robbins, as the parental figure, is absent from the house and is unavailable to help the boys remedy their problems (it is nice for ten-minutes of screen time to see Robbins do some acting at the start of the picture, before the special effects take over).

In a fantastic, if unexplained phenomenon, the house now floats in outer space amongst the stars. The boys surmise that if they finish the game, everything will go back to normal. The completion of the game takes up most of the film’s running time. The boys are attacked by lizard-like beasts called Zorgons, they are chased by a malfunctioning robot, and are called upon to rescue a deserted astronaut (Dax Shepard). Meanwhile, they have a sister (Kristen Stewart) that is frozen upstairs until the boys move enough spaces on the game board that will allow her to thaw out. Once she’s thawed out only to discover their house is in space, she’s as you would guess, scared silly. As stated, it’s an assembly-line of gimmicks or obstacles. Take your pick.

Boys Walter and Danny are squabbling brothers, and it's part of the story’s requirement that they learn how to work together in order to survive, since there is no point of fighting with each other when they should be teaming up to fight against the robot. The film is directed by Jon Favreau, a substantial character actor who also directed the adorable and timeless "Elf" with Will Ferrell. This new film is a step down for him. The story is unworthy of his talents. Sure, he can make an efficient funhouse of a movie for kids where the special effects are demonstrated with clockwork pacing, but there is never a chance in this tale for Favreau to endear our hearts. So while kids between 8 and 12 are excited by the lightweight chicanery and mayhem, the rest of the audience grows weary.

There are films geared towards the age 8 to 12 demographic that I’m still quite fond of. If you put "Labyrinth" or "The Neverending Story" in front of me, or a modern day triumph like "The Incredibles" or "Finding Nemo," I’m glued to it. Maybe it’s the assortment of multi-faceted challenges that its characters encounter that hold my attention in a grip, or perhaps its merely more visual variety. "Zathura" is stunted by its own uni-dimensional aspirations, and it is weighed down into predictability. Having been made to sit through "Zathura," I was able to tolerate it. But it killed my time, and never did I feel that it enriched it.