Well I must say, this movie was definitely one very beautiful roller coaster ride. The special effects were breathtaking, the action was intense, and I even liked the story for the most part. Overall, this was a fairly entertaining, enjoyable film. In fact, it COULD have been one of the best SF action movies I've seen in a long time. Up to a point, this was a pretty good movie . . . up to a point.
Unfortunately, LOST IN SPACE suffered from the same problem most Hollywood films of this genre suffer from . . . good premise, weak follow-through. Basically, things really fell apart for me towards the end of this film. Their attempts to make this into yet another overly sentimental, "feel good" movie came across as very trite, and frankly, quite silly. The main villain was also defeated in that very typical, lame, generic, highly improbable, but spectacular looking way in which all villains must die in action movies. In fact, he really wasn't much of a villain. It seemed they met him, and then five minutes later, he died. What was the point? His look and the idea behind him was cool, but he just seemed kind of thrown in, just because the writers felt that formulaic need to have a main villain of some kind. Also, some plot holes and more improbabilities sprung up at the end of the film which also left me with a rather dissatisfied feeling.
The acting in this movie was pretty bad too. The young actor who played Will Robinson in particular looked as if he was reading cue cards at times. Matt LeBlanc's performance was also pretty weak. He was too much of a poser, and he really didn't rise above that sitcom level of acting at all. Even William Hurt's performance was stiff and unbelievable. Gary Oldman was the only one who really stood out acting wise.
Which brings us to the characters. You can't get any more generic cookie cutter than this movie. We've got the scientist husband who puts his career before his family too much. We've got the wife who had no character beyond being the wife. You've got the annoying teenage girl who hates her parents and her life. You've got the hotshot, macho pilot. The scholarly, stand-offish oldest daughter whose character doesn't extend too far beyond being the counter to Matt LeBlanc's macho flirtations. And let's not forget the genius, nerdy, Elroy Jetson-like youngest son. Basically, Dr. Smith and the Robot were the best characters in this movie. At least Dr. Smith was a bit morally ambiguous . . . evil and devious for the most part, but possessing some redeeming qualities despite himself. And the Robot was cool because of the different ways he struggled with his evil programming, first after being deactivated, destroyed and re-programmed, and then resisting the evil programming of his future self. (Although his conversion was one of those highly trite moments I spoke of earlier.) Still, I sure liked him better than any of the Robinsons. (Of course, I remember liking him best on the old T.V. show, too.)
It's really a shame. This movie COULD have been really great. And up to a point, it was. But the ending! Why is this such a problem with script writers in Hollywood? It has the obvious feel of being rushed. "We're hard up for ideas, and the deadline is quickly approaching, so let's hurry up and sloppily wrap the story up in as dissatisfying and as formulaic a way as possible." Like I said, this film did have a pretty good story behind it. But it all just sort of degenerated at the end. WHY??!!!
Still, as I said, I was entertained by this movie for the most part. The space-action sequences alone are worth the price of admission. I mean, despite its drawbacks, it was at least fun. So LOST IN SPACE gets a marginal thumbs up from me.
Michael O'Brien ([email protected]) has a degree from Cal State Long Beach in film, and has worked for a number of years in film production as a sound mixer. He now works in the field of motion picture editing, and also writes articles, reviews, and original fiction for an SF/fantasy-related web page he co-manages with his brother Paul, entitled "The Crossover Universe." For more examples of their work, check out their web site at: http://pages.prodigy.com/crossover