Lost in Space

A wild ride through nonstop visual effects yet a warm wallow in the cinema of the dumbed-down.

This good movie could have been great if writer Akiva Goldsman had been able to -- or been permitted to -- dump the boundaries of the TV source altogether.

The picture is a relentless blast of color and movement that's based on the old TV show, but boils down to a supercharged version of old-time Saturday-afternoon movie serials.

The filmmakers can't decide what sort of picture they're trying to cook up, so they keep oscillating among shallow psychological drama, high-tech action sequences, and comedy scenes that are themselves an uneasy mixture of sitcom-style dialogue and self-mocking campiness.

This effects-loaded extravaganza has more trouble finding its dramatic bearings than the Space Family Robinson has in figuring out where the heck in the universe they are.

Episodically eventful but utterly unsuspenseful, the film is a diversion that requires little attention and satisfies the film-going needs of a wide variety of viewers.

Dream up a plot incorporating time travel, genetic mutation, cyberjargon, and saving the Earth -- all the worst and most boring elements of science fiction. Finally, type up a list of bad jokes, space-talk, and semi-tough tag lines; label it "script."

A very good Si-Fi movie ! Good for the all family, good story, just a little long. It's not the best film ever made but would deserve to be more known

I'll be honest when I say I actually liked this movie. I know it gets allot of bad reviews from allot of people, and I understand and agree their opinions. But, I enjoyed at and found it entertaining. As long as you don't take it too seriously and enjoy it for what it is then it can be fun. Overall: It's a crap movie, but I still enjoyed regardless of all its flaws.

I saw this when I was 14 or 15 so my review definitely doesn't have a lot of credibility. I liked the movie enough to watch it a few times, but I do remember most of it being cheesy and predictable. Although to give it more credit, the original was extremely cheesy, what would you expect from a 50s show? I felt the story needed to be more centered around one issue, but it felt random. But perhaps it was doomed from the start. The main premise is that they are lost in space and they have lots of adventures. So, perhaps this should have been a show and not a movie. This film is decent, that is the best way to describe it. Gary Oldman is wonderful as usual, great character.

It's hard to know where to start with this mess of a movie when almost everything is so horribly wrong. The writing is absolutely appalling ("Within these eggsacks lives a monster race of spiders!"), the direction is non-existent, the plot flails around at random, and the effects are incredibly dated. However, most of all, what truly makes Lost in Space a wretched experience, is the cast. Oftentimes the robot (simply named 'Robot') has more emotional depth than the human characters. William Hurt and Matt LeBlanc put on embarrassingly awful performances, and being the two male leads, this is unforgivable. Lines are just lackadaisically read in standard middle-shots no matter the scenario. Gary Oldman brings his usual A-grade ham, and Jared Harris uses a bizarre cartoon-character like speech pattern for his role. The film is not offensively bad, but most certainly is not worth the two-hours of its running time.

1. youngest daughter set to squeal. 2. ham ****. 3. monotone performance from William Hurt. 4.underdone monkey pet set to squeal. 5. continuity issues of internal story logic. 6. Mr. Robinson's goodbye to his wife "goodbye wife" before possible death clearly overdubbed post production. 7. constant dead eyes from cast apparently director had no cattle prod. 8. "robot forget logic use your heart" Will to robot, a child prodigy of time travel is so temporary stupid he doesn't know software is built on logic.