a5c7b9f00b Two young brothers are drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is hurled through the depths of space by the magical board game they are playing. Danny and Walter are two brothers who barely get along even while driving their parents to distraction as their older sister tries to ignore them. Despite their squabbling, the brothers manage cooperate enough to play an old mechanical board game named Zathura. However, after their first move, they find that the game has apparently flung them, their sister and their entire house into outer space. Furthermore, the brothers surmise the only way to return home is to finish the game. However with almost every move, new dangers arise as the siblings find themselves learning to cooperate in ways they never expected as they realize what they mean to each other. I am ready to put an end to all the haters out there. Zathura is not a remake of the classic film Jumanji. I will say there are notable similarities between the two films, but besides the fact that both revolve around board games that affect reality, there isn't much else. Zathura was a wonderful film and everyone who doesn't like it because they think it is a copy of Jumaji should give it a second chance.<br/><br/>I have to say that I am an Oakland Athletics fan and the constant replay of Octavio Dotel giving up walk off home runs to Red Sox hitters didn't start me off on the right foot. But the performances by the two youth boys, played by Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson, drew me into the movie. It really seemed like these were real brothers fighting over similar things my brother and I fight about. Also the mix between serious scenes and comedic relief were very well integrated. Whenever I was in need of a laugh, Danny (Bobo) was there to deliver. Whenever I wanted some action and adventure on my plate, the astronaut (Dax Shepard) was there with some kick ass moves and clever ideas.<br/><br/>The visuals in this film were incredible. From the house zipping through the galaxy to the tiniest details of the board game, the movie looked in every way like a real house in outer space.<br/><br/>I would highly recommend this film to children and adults alike. Though I think the children would enjoy it more. This is a fantastic family movie and is worth the nine dollars. Make a stop to see Zathura your next night out and you won't be disappointed. Zathura is a film that has a recycled plot. Of course, as you can tell, it's from the guy who did Jumanji. I appreciated Jumanji for many reasons. But, I, on the otherhand, did not appreciate Zathura, which is pretty much the same film. But eliminate the creativity and the fun that Jumanji was. How could somebody disagree with me... Zathura is a ripoff. Like Jumanji, the film has two kids who play a magical board game. Like Jumanji, the film has a great cast. But unlike Jumanji, Zathura is a tad less enjoyable and deserves less credit than it got.<br/><br/>It's not that Zathura was overrated. It's just that some people hated Jumanji but liked Zathura. I am one of the rare few who prefers Jumanji over Zathura. I just think that Zathura is weird and doesn't make all that much sense. I think the surprise in the end was... well, surprising. For people to say that Zathura is better than Jumanji is just ridiculous. They are both pretty much the same film, besides the space thing. I was more into the jungle theme more anyways. The plot to Zathura is recycled. Chris Van Allsberg must've made this book more recently because the guy is creative, but there's not much creativity in this. I give Zathura a mild thumbs down. It's not that it's a bad film, it's just that it doesn't have what Jumanji has. Creativity and good special effects. <br/><br/>The Plot: Two brothers discover a magical board game called Zathura and start to play it. The two brothers eventually end up in space, where they do some hard challenges. From the author of Jumanji. Will work better for younger viewers than older ones. There's not much plot to absorb and there's plenty of action, so this is the kind of spectacle that will appeal to those without long attention spans. Both Jumanji and Zathura are based on novels by Chris Van Allsburg; in the book version of Zathura, the Zathura board game is found inside Jumanji, but an astronaut living inside Zathura claims to have created Jumanji.<br/><br/>Zathura director Jon Favreau discouraged the notion that the film is a sequel to the earlier film Jumanji, having not particularly liked that film. Both he and Chris Van Allsburg stated that Zathura is very different from Jumanji. No characters from Jumanji appear in Zathura.<br/><br/>However, reviewers disagreed, saying the films were very similar, one dismissing Zathura as "Jumanji in space without Robin Williams." Due to the usage of an aerosol as a blowtorch two scenes of the British version were cut in order to get a PG rating from the BBFC. In both cases shorter alternate material is used.