You're absolutely right Ken, Jumaji was really good at this. Zathura is just a pitiful copy. Plus, the music at the end drove me crazy!

I loved it.They went to space. They went back home at the end.

"Jumanji" knew how to do this right. This movie didn't have a clue.

This was a very exiting movie.

After the past comes the future, after The Flintstones came The Jetsons, and after Jumanji came this. Both Zathura and Jumanji were based on children's books by Polar Express author Chris Van Allsburg, who exploits opposite ends of the same premise: kids get sucked into an unfamiliar, potentially deadly world or universe by playing a mysterious, old-school board game. But while Jumanji was a rather nasty piece of work that relied all too heavily on its unconvincing special effects, Zathura is a surprisingly effective entertainment. Perhaps the director made the difference: Jumanji helmsman Joe Johnston specializes almost exclusively in SFX films (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park 3) while Zathura's Jon Favreau is first and foremost an actor, which (along with this film's modest budget) allows him to focus on characterizations as he tells the story of two bickering brothers (Jonah Bobo and Josh Hutcherson) who learn some valuable Life Lessons as the game literally whisks them and their house into outer space, where they're forced to do battle with meteors and Zorgons. Favreau makes excellent visual use of light and darkness in building tension and suspense, gets a hilarious performance from Dax Sheppard, who both channels and parodies a slightly dissipated Harrison Ford as a stranded astronaut the boys encounter, and benefits from a solid script that plays fair with the audience as it plants seemingly insignificant clues and plot details that later bloom with some very surprising and satisfying payoffs. Minus points, however, go to Zathura for its noticeable strain of sexism; we see the boys' father (Tim Robbins) but never his mother (which makes the film's choice of golden oldie for its closing credits theme both peculiar and puzzling), and their big sister is depicted as a clueless, boy-crazy ninny who, in the script's one unconvincing aspect, is kept out of the loop as much as can be gotten away with. Nevertheless, Zathura is a witty, diverting thrill ride for audiences of all ages...and if you want evidence to convince your kids that board games are way cooler than video games, it's the perfect audio-visual aid!… Expand

The dialogue is so atrociously written, the interplay so out of joint, and the musical scoring so ham-handed as to extinguish any spark of originality. It's worse than bad, it's nothing.

Who could root for these two selfish kids who endlssly bicker. I would have cheered if they had been sucked into the molten surface of the Planet Tsouris in the first half hour. What was Sony Pictures thinking ,having a never smiling six and ten year old uttering profanity and throwing in a non essential sister who only answer to her borther and sister's pleas is to strike them. Clearly the author must have come from a broken home (as did I) I suggest he grow up and get over it.… Expand

Overall, a nice family movie. If you like Jumanji, you'll like this. The effects were good, but i was surprised to learn most of them were practical, not digital, because Jon Favreau wanted the actors to have an interactive environment so they could give their best performances. Shows there's hope for family films yet. Wish there were more ship battles, those were cool.

My boys (6, 9, 11) loved it, both my wife and I enjoyed it. Solid family movie, in spite of teenage Lisa being tweaked to give Dad a special reason to watch.

Not bad at all. A very original and clever idea. I've never seen Jumanji though, so I'm not sure how similar they are.

Both the kids (9+11) loved it, and I thouroughly enjoyed it (vs Chicken Little) Not the 10/10 that Wallace and Grommit got, but v. good still.

This actually counts as a combined 3-person vote...and we all give it a unanimous thumbs up! Just as fun as Jumanji with just as much action, suspense and laughs. There's no doubt this'll make big bucks at the box office this weekend and for weeks to come.

When the eight-year-old kid calls his older brother a "d---", it's your right to be offended that such phallic slang should be uttered in a family film, or you can take it as a homage to "E.T." when Elliot calls his brother "penis breath". And since screenwriter David Koepp has collaborated with Spielberg on "Jurassic Park", "The Lost World", & "War of the Worlds", the seemingly anachoristic word might be the case of a scribe chiding his boss for excising "penis breath" from the special edition of "E.T." As the older sister, Kristen Stewart is not an adolescent who's desexualized and Disney-fied, which adds a little realism to counterbalance the preposterous notion that a house can fly. The referencing of a Catherine Hardwicke film is a funny aside Jon Favreau might've written-in to remind people that he used to be an indie guy. "Zathura" is watchable, largely because the actors aren't overwhelmed by special effects, but it would've been more fun to see Stewart "hook-up".… Expand

Some very cool effects in this movie. I particularly liked the part where the house was gettng torpedoed by aliens.The only somewhat annoying theme of the movie I guess would be te constant fighting of the two brothers.

This movie was a magical romp. It was entertaining, the only boring part being the unnecessary stealth/thriller scene aboard the "Zorgon"'s ship, but even that was necessary to offer some variety. I highly recommend this film. It's not just for family. In fact, I don't recommend this for younger children: in the first 5 minutes, an 8-year-old kid intentionally says the "D-word" (and that's not the end of the swearing).… Expand