PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 11/11/05)

Be nice to your brother, otherwise the next time you’re both hurtling through outer space in your father’s creaky old house, he may just decide to let you take your chances with that retro ‘50s sci-fi robot in the living room with a saw for an arm. That’s kind of the message of Zathura, an intergalactic adventure told through the eyes of two warring siblings, who post-divorce of their parents find themselves in the worst of rivalries. As they take turns hurtling playground insults at one another, it becomes clear that 10 year-old Walter (Josh Hutcherson) blames younger brother Danny (Jonah Bobo) for their parents’ split. Danny, growing up in Walter’s shadow, just wants his brother to take him seriously. It’s a conventional tale, told here in an understated way by director Jon Favreau (Elf). Based on the book by children’s author Chris Van Allsburg, who also wrote Jumanji, Zathura is similar in structure to its cousin (the boys find a board game, but are transported into space rather than the jungle), but in execution, the film versions of the two tales couldn’t be more different. Where Jumanji was fast-paced and jarring, Zathura doesn’t resort to seat-rattling to make its point. Favreau eschewed CG in favor of doing things the old fashioned way, with models, so rather than zipping and zooming through space, things tend to move at an asteroid’s pace, which turns out to be not so slow that the kids will lose interest. There’s nary a smidgen of adult humor, so parents might find things a bit on the dull side at times, but in the end they will likely thank Favreau in droves for making a film that is at least certain not to give them a headache.—Ryan Devlin