prologue

The opening credits of Zathura are closeups of an old science-fiction board game, a game that should have existed in real life and specifically in my childhood, but which was created for this movie. In these days of high-tech video games, it's remarkable that kids once got incredibly thrilled while pushing little metal racing cars around a cardboard track: The toy car was yours, and you invested it with importance and enhanced it with fantasy and pitied it because it was small, like you were.”

The film begins with one of the most creative title sequences of the year. Favreau’s camera zooms in, around, and through the movie’s titular game, racing across the mechanical board like a rocket, and making the metal and cardboard device itself look as though it has come wonderfully alive. Silly and simple though that short bit of credits may be, it’ll make you feel like a kid again.”

The title sequence, taken from the markings on the metal game itself, and the style of the alien craft they encounter are reminiscent of Flash Gordon.”

The opening titles aren’t from an unfinished effects reel. The hues threw me off for a second but, no… the title sequence sets an expectation for Buck Rogers-style adventure.”