LOST IN SPACE ** (out of four) --by Bill Chambers (wchamber@netcom.ca) (For more lame-ass reviews visit my scum-hearted website: FILM FREAK CENTRAL! http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/7504 Lots to read, and a special section called CAN'T MISS where you can tell me (and others) what to see. Visit it, you damn filthy apes!)
starring Matt LeBlanc, Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Mimi Rogers written by Akiva Goldsman directed by Stephen Hopkins
Lost In Space is better entertainment than the TV series upon which it is based; to say that is to damn the film to faint praise, for it should eradicate all memory of that barely entertaining '60's show. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, Lost In Space only knows how to lose the Astro Family Robinson--once they're lost, it becomes a concept in search of a story.
LeBlanc stars as Major Don West, an ace pilot ordered to fly the Robinson family to a distant planet so that they may prepare said planet for future colonization--Earth's destruction, due to a civil war, seems inevitable, so humans will be relocated to habitable Alpha Prime. (Why the war wouldn't then be relocated also is not a subject broached.) Unfortunately, they are sidetracked by evil engineer Dr. Smith (Oldman), who first intends to sabotage the 10-year mission but is betrayed by his own men, and stuck on board as a result. With part of Smith's plan already executed, the Robinsons are forced to abort their journey to Alpha Prime, drive through the sun, and fend for themselves against various encounters, some alien, some less so.
After a rousing opening battle sequence, some nifty special effects, and the suspenseful sun trip, Lost In Space becomes lost itself. Lost in awkward characterizations (you'd never know the irritating Lacey Chabert, as Penny, was familiar with Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, let alone their daughter); lost in lifted-from-Star Trek plot points (the future- spoiling "time bubble" that is the climax has become stock sci-fi material); lost in increasingly bad computer-generated images (the Robinsons encounter a pointless, "cute" space monkey, which looks as if it has wandered off the Toy Story set--worse, so badly integrated, it looks Scotch-taped to the film). I wasn't expecting brilliance from the un-ironically bad screenwriter Goldsman (Batman and Robin), nor director Hopkins (Predator 2), so the fact that the first half is actually good makes it all the more unnerving. The cast mostly rises above the material, Chabert and LeBlanc excepted. LeBlanc comes off like his Friends alter-ego--aspiring actor Joey--playing a part for laughs in a big-budget movie. Gary Oldman and little Jack Johnson are standouts; as Will (as in, "Danger, Will Robinson!"), Johnson has a lot of charisma, and he's cute enough that they can lose the space monkey.
Oh, if they had. If they had lost so many things instead of their marbles...
Perhaps the sequel will be an improvement.
Bill Chambers; April, 1998; originally printed in "The NewS"
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