Kristen Stewart’s Family-Friendly Sci-Fi Box Office Bomb Is Worth Revisiting

While she’s best known for a certain fantasy romance franchise (and has since gone on to do her best work in small indie dramas), Kristen Stewart is no stranger to genre filmmaking. In fact, she’s amassed a nice little resume within the sci-fi genre, having acted in movies like “Jumper,” “Crimes of the Future,” and “Undersea.”

Unfortunately, Stewart hasn’t had much luck in the genre so far as the box office is concerned. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek out her various sci-fi projects. Quite the opposite: Her family-friendly 2005 bomb “Zathura: A Space Adventure” features a great cast of once and future franchise stars. It also marked an early directorial effort from the man who would eventually put Grogu and Martin Scorsese together on the big screen, and it boasts some pretty good practical effects to boot.

Yes, “Zathura” was Jon Favreau’s third outing as a director and had a script credited to David Koepp and John Kramps, itself adapted from Chris Van Allsburg’s book of the same name. “Zathura” is even technically part of the “Jumanji” movie franchise, as Allburg’s original work takes place in the same universe as his classic fantasy adventure creation.

In “Zathura,” Josh Hutcherson and Jonah Bobo play two brothers who constantly fight and are struggling with the recent divorce of their parents. Dealing with a workaholic dad and an older sister (Kristen Stewart) who couldn’t care less what her siblings do, the pair find a magical board game that transports their house to outer space. From there, they’re forced to survive various alien dangers and finish the game if they ever hope to get back safely home.

“Zathura,” as mentioned earlier, features two then-future stars in the YA genre space, with Kristen Stewart becoming the face of the “Twilight” films and Josh Hutcherson co-leading the “Hunger Games” movies years later. The movie also co-stars Dax Shepard, Frank Oz as the voice of a defective robot, and Tim Robbins (decades out from his performance as the most underrated character on “Silo”).

Admittedly, “Zathura” never really hides the fact that it really is just “Jumanji” in outer space, with a mysterious adult man chasing after the protagonists, huge special effects, and animalistic threats preying on the house where the story takes place. Yet, it mostly works, in no small part due to Stan Winston’s contributions to the film’s visual effects. Some of its CGI looks dated nowadays, sure, but the practical effects from Stan Winston Studios remain convincing and enhance the movie’s sense of wonder. With its assorted fantastical creatures, “Zathura” helped to kickstart Jon Favreau’s fascination with technology and effects as well — for better and for worse.

Sadly, Stewart doesn’t have to do much in “Zathura,” as her character ends up spending most of its runtime cryogenically frozen (with Stan Winston Studios having devised a life-size model of a frozen Stewart for the occasion). Of course, when she’s not frozen, Stewart succeeds in giving her onscreen counterpart more than just the annoyed big sister who panics about her predicament. Her character gets some emotional moments with her brothers, too, along with some fun banter with Dax Shepard’s Astronaut (who gets the film’s best scene, in which we learn his true identity and tragic backstory).

“Zathura” has a 77% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the vast majority of the film’s reviews being positive. Indeed, Roger Ebert was among those who praised the movie, writing that it works “gloriously as space opera” and commending Jon Favreau for bringing “a muscular solidity to his special effects” that infuses them with imperfections and personality (which, in turn, makes them feel more grounded and real).

Sorry to say, though, all that critical praise wasn’t enough to make “Zathura” a hit. Instead, the film was overshadowed at the box office by Disney’s “Chicken Little,” which was the studio’s first fully computer-animated movie. Making matters worse, “Zathura” was all but forgotten about a week later when “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” opened in theaters. In the end, the film barely matched its $65 million budget at the global box office. Still, it was nominated for several Saturn Awards, including Best Fantasy Film.

Some 14 years after its theatrical release, “Zathura” found its way back into the public consciousness when Jack Black, who was promoting “Jumanji: The Next Level” at the time, reminded audiences that “Zathura” is part of the same franchise (via Variety). Today, it remains a pleasant, family-friendly sci-fi flick that’s worth your time, should you find yourself in the mood for some cosmic hijinks.