"Lost in Space" Movie Review

    In the 1960s and into the 1970s, science fiction films and television shows were popping up all the time but one of the first hit shows to come out of the sci-fi boom was “Lost in Space”.  The show was based on the classic book “The Swiss Family Robinson” but with a sci-fi twist.  The show lasted for three years and developed a loyal fanbase over the years.  Who to this day hasn’t heard “Danger!  Danger Will Robinson!” at least once in their life?  “Lost in Space” is now enjoying a successful second life thanks to the new Netflix series but this wasn’t the first attempt at a reboot for the franchise.  This blog is going to focus on the most ambitious remake attempt at the time for this property, the 1998 “Lost in Space” film.

    The movie version of “Lost in Space” was basically a remake of the pilot of the tv show.  The Robinson family launches into space to colonize a new home but Dr. Smith sabotages their ship (and ends up getting stuck on the ship as well) so they are thrown off course into uncharted space.  They are literally lost in space.  In the film, the Robinson family, Major West (their pilot), and Dr. West must work together as they come across a time bubble which they end up getting stuck in.  The reason for the time bubble is somewhat of a twist so I won’t discuss it here (although the movie is over two decades old at this point).

    The casting of this movie rages from perfection to what were they thinking.  William Hurt and Mimi Rogers didn’t hurt the film nor did their performances add much.  The two gave rather bland performances but it could have been worse.  Case in point, Matt LeBlanc as Major West.  He was cast solely on the popularity of the show “Friends” and it was a terrible mistake.  He had no sense of authority and cracked unfunny quips because, well, he’s Matt LeBlanc.  Then you have Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith.  Oldman gives it his all in a performance that would almost garner Oscar talk if it were any other film besides “Lost in Space”.  Heather Graham was cast because of her looks and adds very little to the film.  Jack Johnson was extremely good as Will Robinson and was far better than your average child actor.  As you can tell, the cast was a very mixed bag.

    I very much enjoyed the film’s nods to the original tv show as well as the cameos from the original cast members.  It was fun and it wasn’t distracting like in some other remakes.  “Lost in Space” the movie has it’s own style and introduces the concept of time manipulation.  It would have been interesting to see the planned sequel because we would have found out that the Jupiter 2 never escaped the time bubble so the sequel would have essentially been “Lost in Time”.

    “Lost in Space” was an average film based on the revolutionary tv show.  People expected more from this movie, perhaps too much.  I enjoyed the movie quite a bit as a kid because I thought it was fun, which is an opinion I still have.

Grade: C+