Zathura is subtitled "A Space Adventure", but don't expect science fiction - this falls squarely into the fantasy camp.  Based on a children's book by Chris Van Allsburg (who also wrote "Jumanji"), and true to that author's skewed take on reality, Zathura is a movie where the impossible doesn't just happen, it happens at a breakneck pace.

After all, it's only a game.

As in Jumanji, Zathura is the name of the game as well as the title of the film, and what happens in the game happens in real life to the players. 

The players are 6 year old Danny (Jonah Bobo) and his ten year old brother Walter (Josh Hutcherson), and when we meet them, these are not particularly lovable children!  Danny is a clingy whiner and Walter is a sullen pouter who wants nothing to do with his little brother.  And they fight All. The. Time.

The brothers are staying with Dad (Tim Robbins) in his utterly cool Craftsman bungalow (hey, I watch HGTV, so I notice these things), waiting for joint-custody mom to pick them up.  Dad has to run to the office, so the bros are allegedly being watched by older sister Lisa (Kristen Stewart), who is fast asleep upstairs. 

An act of meanness sets them on their adventure, as Walter sends Danny down to the scary old basement in the dumbwaiter.   The basement frightens Danny, but on his way out, he notices and picks up an intriguing box under the stairs. 

This is "Zathura: A Space Adventure".  Great mid-century graphics and inside a tin wind-up sort of board game, with finned spacecraft following a track around a board. 

Danny takes the game back to the living room and tries to get Walter interested in playing, but Walter is ignoring him.  To play, the player turns a key and presses a button.  A spinner tells you how many spaces your spaceship advances, and then a card pops out of a slot.  "Take a walk on the Boardwalk"?  No - how about "Meteor Shower; Take Evasive Action". 

Danny can't read the card  - he's only six, after all, and those aren't words on the first grade reader vocabulary.  Walter reads it for him indifferently.  But then hot rocks start crashing into the living room.  Yep, they're caught in a meteor shower. 

When the meteor shower ends, the brothers see darkness and bright stars through the window.  Going out on the porch, they discover that they - and the house - are orbiting Saturn.  Or some ringed planet, anyway. 

Yes, that's right.  The house is in outer space and the electricity still works and you can go out on the front porch and keep breathing.  (I can hear the science fiction purists hyperventilating from here.  Calm down, guys!  It's just a game! Actually, it's just a movie about a game.) 

It occurs to the brothers to read the instructions, and they learn that the only way to get home is to finish the game, so they keep playing. 

When Walter takes a turn, his card reads "Your robot is defective."  Huh, sez Walter, I don't even have a robot.  Oh, but he does now.  A big old robot straight out of 1950s sci-fi - and it wants to kill him. 

More destruction of that beautiful old bungalow - how to make an HGTV viewer cringe and whimper. 

Where's Lisa while all this is going on?  Well, there's that card that says "Shipmate enters cryogenic sleep chamber for five turns" - so for a good portion of the movie, she's a Lisacicle. 

Not all the cards are bad news.  One advises them to "Rescue stranded astronaut", and the next thing they know, there's a man in a space suit plastered against the window.   So of course they let him in.  The Astronaut (Dax Shepherd) turns out to be a useful guy to have around.  Not only is he an adult, he knows the territory and he knows the game.  And he knows what mistakes not to make since he's made them himself. 

When Lisa finally thaws out, she finds The Astronaut highly attractive. 

The boys and Lisa need a guy who knows the territory, because they're being stalked by Zorgons.  Big space-going human-eating lizards. 

If you don't intuitively know that the brothers will learn to get along and appreciate one another before the closing credits, this must be the first movie you've ever seen in your life. 

Fantasy adventure targeted to families, Zathura is fast-paced, completely impossible, very stylish, and lots of fun. 

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