At the end of the 90s it was a trend that former television shows suddenly became movies. Shows like My Favorite Martian, Car 54: Where are you? and The Addams Family were just a few examples of Hollywood resurrecting ideas clearly made for the small screen (although, The Addams Family was quite good). So someone decides that remaking Lost in Space was a great idea and I have to admit that the thought wasn’t bad, as you have all the exciting elements in the show to make a really cool sci-fi motion picture.
Here’s how the story pans out in the movie….
The Robinsons have volunteered to go to a planet called Alpha Prime to set up a colony for earth. The current earth has about 50 more years left in it before it can no longer sustain life (due to pollution and use of fossil fuels). Alpha Prime is 10 years out, so the family has to travel far and basically has one shot to get there. If they fail then everyone on earth will probably die. Of course, outside of the elements fighting their journey they also have to get their before a rogue group of fighters called the Global Sedition sets up shop there as well (and they won’t let anyone else). Something goes terribly wrong on the way to Alpha Prime and the family ends up stranded in space somewhere. Somehow the family finds a time warp and end up even worse off course. They are truly lost in space at this point.
The movie is a mess. It starts off really well, as you fully understand the family’s desperate journey and you even feel for them. When Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman) sneaks on board and finds himself stranded with the family you know the writers are losing it a bit. Once Dr. Smith’s plan goes wrong and he finds himself as trapped as the family then the plot starts to lose control of itself. The story soon switches from not being able to get to Alpha Prime to not being able to support their own life to completely caught in a time warp. There is so much going on here that you don’t really get to enjoy any one part of it. I won’t let the cat out of the bag on how the movie ends, mainly because it’s really confusing, but just note that solutions for the problems during that the story creates completely come out of left field.
The whole ‘time warp’ thing is really misplaced.
To say the least, this is nothing like the show and it’s not close to entertaining as the show from 1965 was at one point.
With that said, the acting does help ease the pain a bit with the great William Hurt leading the way as Professor John Robinson. He does his best to make the storyline better and, as usual, provides eloquent acting that not a lot of sci-fi movies can sport these days. Rivaling him is Gary Oldman, who plays the very erratic Dr. Smith. He’s as vicious as can be, but represents the late Jonathan Harris really well as a sniveling wuss when it comes down to things. Those two actors help make the movie better, but ultimately cannot hold up the film on their shoulders.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it’s good. I think that movies like THX 1138 certainly look better on the format, but it still looks sharp. The well-lit areas of the movie, especially on the ship and during the action scenes, benefit greatly from the HD upgrade. You’ll see more details in the movie than you thought it had and you’ll appreciate the amount of special effects that went into the production (their details are very good for special effects).
The soundtrack from Bruce Broughton (Tombstone and Tiny Toons — no joke on the last one there) is pretty good and appropriate when it needs to be. The remastering in DTS-HD is a much-needed upgrade, which benefits the sound effects as well (though they are goofy at times).
Finally, let’s talk about the special features department of this Blu-ray. You get two commentaries from director Stephen Hopkins and Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (one commentary) and from Visual Effects Supervisors Angus Bickerton and Lauren Ritchie, Director of Photography Peter Levy, Editor Ray Lovejoy and Producer Carla Fry (second commentary). If you wanted to know every aspect of the film you’re in for a treat with the commentaries. They’re only missing the grips and best boy (just kidding).
You also get some deleted scenes and additional scenes, which aren’t too bad (though they don’t help the film overall). You also get a great featurette called Building Special Effects (goes into how they did the special effects and why they’re proud of it) and a not so great featurette called The Future of Space Travel (haven’t figured out this one yet). Mixed this all with a music video and a superb Q/A with the original cast of the television show and you’re probably going to be pleased with the special features of this Blu-ray (though you’ve seen some of this before).