New Line, Rated PG-13
Directed by Stephen Hopkins
Written by Akiva Goldsman
I'm pleased to say that maybe there is hope for screenwriter Akiva Goldsman after all. With Lost in Space, he narrowly avoids being branded the worst screenwriter in Hollywood, after the disastrous reaction to his Batman & Robin script last summer. Not that this, the first big-budget sci-fi action flick of 1998, is flawless. The film is based on the cult '60s television series of the same name, and the basic plot is the same: the Robinson family take off in a saucer-like spaceship called the Jupiter 2 to colonize a planet far off in space and save the human race, seeing as the earth's natural resources have depleted too much for us to live on it much longer. I don't remember if the environmental angle was part of the original series, seeing as I haven't seen a whole episode in over a decade, but I digress. The series itself was dismissed by many after its first season, when the show took on a campy atmosphere. Thankfully, the camp is at a minimum here which is more than could be said about "B & R". William Hurt and Mimi Rogers star as the heads of the clan, taking along their reluctant children, Penny ("Party of Five"'s Lacey Chabert) and Will (Jack Johnson), as well as their much older daughter, Dr. Judy Robinson (Heather Graham), who repeatedly shoots down the advances of Don West (Matt LeBlanc), the pilot hired for the trip. An unexpected passenger is Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman, again playing a villain), who sabotages the only character from the original series better known than himself, the Robot (voiced by Dick Tufeld, who did his voice on TV), and is then stuck on the ship. As a result of this, the Robinsons' adventures begin after they go way off course, and find themselves (ahem) lost in space. The film seems to be going through the motions towards the beginning, telling the story straight through, but it expands on the story in the last 45 minutes or so, with a mind-blowing time travel angle. The story does drag a little in the middle, but it's mostly very exciting, with mostly dazzling special effects, while Hurt, Rogers, Graham, and Oldman deliver commendable performances in a film not really made to showcase good acting. Chabert isn't quite as annoying as she is on television, but her contrived character and occasional talks to her video diary drove me dangerously close to the breaking point. LeBlanc proves he can do more than play Joey on "Friends," but the role didn't give him a lot to do. And the character of Blawp, a space monkey the Robinsons find, should've been completely omitted. The film is, however, a lot of fun, and there's certainly plenty to like here. But it's still going to take more than this to redeem Goldsman. Thank God Joel Shumacher was nowhere to be found. ** 1/2
He took the words right out of my mouth!
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