Warner Bros. | 1998 | 130 mins. | PG-13
The 1998 film Lost in Space is a reboot of the classic 1960’s television series. Starring William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Matt LeBlanc and Gary Oldman with Party of Five’s Lacey Chabert, the movie is largely unsuccessful. Going in, the idea was to modernize the beloved show into a series of films, but obviously that never happened. While the film is undeniably a visual treat, the plot is all over the place.
Perhaps the problem was that the 1960’s series is decidedly campy, and this film tries very hard not be, while squeezing in enough “inside’ jokes to please fans of the series. Set in 2058 where almost all of the Earth’s natural resources have been nearly exhausted, soon the Earth won’t be able to support its inhabitants. To that end, government agencies have decided to find a new planet that will support humanity and to relocate the entire human race by the use of a pair of specially designed Hypergates which will allow a mass exodus through space to a suitable planet.
In the midst of all this, a high ranking scientist named Professor John Robinson (William Hurt) decides to take his family, consisting of wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), daughter Judy (Heather Graham), daughter Penny (Lacey Chabert), and son Will (Jack Johnson) – on a mission with a fighter pilot named Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc) to Alpha Prime which they hope will be able to sustain humanity. What they don’t know is that a baddy named Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman) is working with a criminal organization called the Seditions who plan to uses the ship’s robot to send their ship, the Jupiter 2, veering off course. When this happens, John uses the ship’s hyperdrive but soon the family find themselves lost in space, but Smith didn’t make it off the ship before it went off course, which causes some unexpected problems. The Robinson’s now have to find their way home while contending with time warps, technological problems, and Dr. Smith.
Along with the special effects, there are really too many characters to be able to focus on any one of them. Aside from Gary Oldman as Dr. Zachary Smith, we get the bland wife Dr. Maureen Robinson (Mimi Rogers); the beautiful older daughter, Dr. Judy Robinson (Heather Graham), a brilliant scientist; the younger teenage daughter, Penny Robinson (Lacey Chabert), a chatty brat; and the young boy, Will Robinson (Jack Johnson), a whiz kid. Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc), has an eye for Judy, which is all pretty predictable. The biggest problem here is that all the actors are given little to do, while the copious special effects are expected to carry the load. Unfortunately, even for fans of the 1960’s television series, that’s not enough to carry an entire film.
New Line Home Video engineers use a VC-1 codec to present the film in its 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The thing is, despite New Line’s best efforts, the picture still looks soft most of the time, a little blurry, and a little murky. Colors are natural enough, although they never pop off the screen. While the HD image quality is certainly better than its standard-definition equivalent, it’s not in the same class as the best that high-def has to offer.
The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track isn’t overly immersive, but it certainly sounds decent enough. The front of the sound stage gets the most action, with rears used a fair bit more sparingly than they could have been but springing to life when called upon. Dialogue is always clean and clear, while the sound effects pack noticeably more punch than they did on DVD. The low end is tight and strong and provides some nice bass rumble when the movie needs it, and generally things sound pretty decent here, even if the movie doesn’t sound as good as a more modern feature might in this department. Optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound tracks are provided in German and Spanish with subtitles available in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The Blu-ray disc offers most of the special features that came with the DVD special edition, and most of them are presented in standard definition. First, there are two, separate feature-length audio commentaries available, one by director Stephen Hopkins and writer Akiva Goldsman and another by visual effects supervisors Angus Bickerton and Lauren Ritchie, director of photography Peter Levy, film editor Ray Lovejoy, and producer Carla Fry.
Next, there is a series of deleted scenes totaling about twelve minutes, followed by a pair of featurettes: “Building the Special Effects,” sixteen minutes, and “The Future of Space,” about ten minutes. Then, there is a “Lost in Space” music video performed by Apollo Four Forty, and then interviews with some of the stars of the original.
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