Movie Review: Zathura

In a few words: I liked Zathura. I'm not ready to say the "L" word yet though and the trouble is I think it has to do with a few pieces of dialog that I seem hung up about. More on that later...
The movie is adequately described as "From the World of Jumanji". If the studio hadn't put that in there, a whole lot of people would have easily dismissed this movie and derivative. Which I suppose in a way that would be like describing the Empire Strikes Back as derivative of Star Wars. That is not to say this movie is a sequel, because it isn't. The movie just centers us in a universe where mysterious old board games become reality, disrupt peoples lives and in the end, leave us with a good message and perhaps something for us with siblings to think about.
The movie is visually perfect. Now, that doesn't mean the effects blow everything else out of the water. What I mean is, they fit the mood, era, er, place when and where all the events take place. I'm not going to say anything else because it could spoil it for some. If you've seen the trailer or poster, there is a GREAT retro sci-fi aspect to this film that takes about as much care with an era and genre as did Sky Captain. The young actors, Jonah Bobo, Josh Hutcherson do a fine job as does Kristen Stewart who plays their older sister. Tim Robbins performance as a single dad struck a note with me. It was a scene with him that help anchor the drama aspect of this film and raise the stakes overall emotionally. Dax Shepard, who plays the Astronaut in the film, was a complete unknown known to me. This guy is good and I expect to see him in more films. If you've seen Jumanji, then you know part of the plot. Kids play an old mysterious board game and reality goes haywire. That's where the plot similarity ends. In Jumanji, an entire town and several families lives are all torn asunder. Not here. This movies is very small by comparisons and one of the reasons it shines. It's just the house, two brothers, their sister and an astronaut in need of rescue that are focused on here. At this point I'd be saying it was one of my favorite family movies, and I suppose I should say that it is. What really, really bothered me was some dialogue language used by the kids in the movie. I'm not saying kids don't talk like this. It just really didn't either add any realism or significance for them to say what they did. For some reason this threw the whole movie off for me.
The final words...
See it? Yes.
Will I buy it? Maybe.