Lost In Space
Starring
•Gary Oldman as Dr. Zachary Smith
•William Hurt as Professor John Robinson
•Matt LeBlanc as Major Don West
•Mimi Rogers as Maureen Robinson
•Heather Graham as Judy Robinson
•Lacey Chabert as Penny Robinson
•Jack Johnson as Will Robinson
•Jared Harris as Older Will Robinson
and Directed by Stephen Hopkins
With this film I was expecting nothing but a special effects show with no plot. I was soon proved wrong. My thoughts on the film had been pre-defined by the fact that a lot of negative reviews were spreading over the internet as the film opened in the US. But my views changed as I watched the film.
The Plot
The future, The earth is overcrowded, The atmosphere is dying, The people don’t know this, They believe that the atmosphere recyclers will keep things going, The recyclers were built too late, they’ll never be truly effective. Professor Robinson has been working with the military, on a ship that will take his family to another world, This world is many light-years away, so they will have to spend the journey in suspended animation. Hyperspace has been invented, but it is unstable. To use it successfully you have to use hyperspace gates for start and stop points (like Babylon 5). Without gates, you could end up anywhere. The plan is to build a gate at earth and the Robinson’s will build one at the new planet, thus enabling future travellers to get there in minutes rather than years. (not confusing at all of course)
But things aren’t going well. The Professors family is not a perfect one. His eldest daughter Judy, is working on the ship with him. Young and technically minded Will Robinson, never gets any attention from his father. The young teenage Penny, is the typical uncontrollable girl for that age who doesn’t want to leave earth and leave everything behind. And finally there is the professors wife Maureen, who is trying to keep things under control as they prepare to leave. Also joining them on this mission is Major Don West who will fly the ship, the Jupiter 2. Although he is angry because he believes its a babysitting job.
These aren’t there only problems. A terrorist group (The Sedition) is trying to stop the entire project as it is believed they have one of their own. They want to colonise the planet before the Robinson’s get there. One of these terrorists is Dr Smith. He has been working for both sides. Helping the Robinson’s and then trying to sabotage the mission at the last minute. But he is double crossed and is stranded on the doomed ship he just sabotaged as it takes off for its new mission.
Dr Smith had ordered the onboard robot to destroy the family and ship sixty hours into the mission. And when this happens all hell breaks loose. Don West manages to stop the robot and the rest of the family are awoken from suspended animation. They find the Doctor and after a few minutes argument about why he’s there etc, they ask him to help them break Judy free of here animation capsule, as she will die if they can’t free her.
Meanwhile the ship course has been altered and is flying straight towards the sun. The gravitational pull is too strong and the Jupiter 2 can’t break free. There only hope of escaping is by using the hyperspace to fly through the sun and escape. But they will have no control over where they’ll end up. Don argues with Professor Robinson and convinces him its the only way out of there current predicament. They activate hyperspace and end up in a region of space they cannot identify. They are lost. In front of them looms a huge alien ship, but upon closer inspection, it has English written on it...
I won’t say anymore otherwise the main bulk of the plot will be given away. You have to watch and listen closely as the plot involves time travel. And because of this, if you miss something, it can become a little confusing. But apart from that, at least this movie had a plot of sorts. Other films recently don’t seem to bother.
The look of this film is excellent. A clean bright future, portrayed with some excellent special effects. The film kicks off with a cool space battle with Major Don West. The special effects in this film were brilliant. They were of a very high standard. The huge robot who works with the Robinson’s was another excellent animatronic created by the Henson Creature Workshop.
The acting was good, although with Matt LeBlanc playing West, it took a long time for me to try and see him as a character in this film. He is so strongly recognised as Joey from Friends, its all I see him as. Although there were some moments were you could replace Don West with Joey and it wouldn’t of mattered.
I usually hate young children in films as there so annoying but this film had the best of both worlds. Young Will Robinson was very good in this film and he didn’t bother me at all. Plus he plays a strong role in the film as the plot later concerns him towards the end. On the other hand Penny Robinson, bugged the hell out of me. I don’t mean to be nasty but her voice I found irritating and she played no importance to the story at all. I believe you could edit her out and the film would still work.
The film for me also had a couple of annoying features. I won’t go into detail to spoil the film, but the ending was very similar to Return Of The Jedi. Secondly, on the alien ship the crew of the Jupiter 2 find a cute little alien which they keep as a pet. This alien was a good in the terms of CGI, but in terms of the film it played no part whatsoever. It had nothing to do with the film, and believe was put there for two reasons. One was to give Penny something to do and secondly, it was simply a merchandising advert. See the film and then but the soft cuddly toy version.
These little points aside, the film is very entertaining. This is worth going and renting on video, and if you saw Godzilla, go and see this.