In the year 2058, the Earth will soon be uninhabitable after the irreversible effects of pollution and global warming! Professor John Robinson, lead scientist of the Jupiter 2 Mission, will lead his family to the habitable planet Alpha Prime to prep it for colonization. The Jupiter 2 is equipped with a hyperdrive that allows faster-than-light travel, which will eventually be employed to evacuate the citizens of Earth. However hypergates must be constructed on Earth and Alpha Prime to provide stable points of departure and arrival. Dr. Zachary Smith is bribed by a terrorist organization to sabotage the mission, and ends up an unwilling stowaway as the ship blasts off. Written by

Plot Synopsis:
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In the year 2058, Earth will soon be uninhabitable after the irreversible effects of pollution. The United Global Space Force serves as the planetary government. Professor John Robinson (William Hurt), lead scientist of the Jupiter Mission, will lead his family, wife Maureen Robinson (Mimi Rogers), daughters Dr. Judy Robinson (Heather Graham) and Penny (Lacey Chabert) and son Will (Jack Johnson) to the habitable planet Alpha Prime to prepare it for colonization by building a hypergate in orbit. The Jupiter 2 is equipped with a hyperdrive that allows faster-than-light travel, which will eventually be employed to evacuate the citizens of Earth. However hypergates must be constructed on Earth and Alpha Prime to provide stable points of departure and arrival. The project is accelerated after Global Sedition terrorist forces send two armed fighters to destroy the hypergate under construction and kill Jupiter 2's pilot, Captain Daniels. Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc), a fighter pilot from the hypergate defense force, manages to destroy the enemy fighters, but his risky stunt in saving a fellow pilot gets him in trouble with his superiors. When he defends himself by putting his friend's life over that of his craft, John Robinson thinks he's the perfect man for the job. Major West is the new pilot of the Jupiter 2, despite his protests.

Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman), the mission's medical expert, is bribed by the Global Sedition to sabotage the mission and reprogram the robot to destroy the Jupiter 2 and the Robinsons. Betrayed by his employers, he is left as an unwilling stowaway as the ship blasts off. The sabotage by the robot altered program causes the ship to veer towards the sun. Realizing that it would be impossible to escape the sun's pull at such close range, Major West and Professor Robinson decide to fly through the sun, using the ship's hyperdrive. Unfortunately, without a hypergate to warp to, the ship and its crew end up in a random (and apparently uncharted) part of the galaxy.

The crew discovers a "hole in space", which they presume is a hole to the future. Soon afterwards, they encounter the Proteus, an Earth ship from the future. The fact that it was a UGSF ship of unknown design piloted by Don's friend, who looked much older and been promoted to Major, seemed to confirm that theory. However, the ship had been infested with carnivorous and cannibalistic silicon-based spider-like lifeforms, one of which scratches Dr. Smith as they try to escape. They lose the robot, which Will had reprogrammed to follow his commands, and Major West overloads the Proteus' engines, destroying the ship and annihilating the spiders, over Professor Robinson's objections. The shock wave from the explosion damages the Jupiter 2, and they crash-land on a nearby planet.

John and Major West confront each other over what happened, but Maureen threatens to relieve both of them of command if they don't stop. On the mysterious planet, she locates a fuel source with which to refuel the damaged engines of the Jupiter 2. However, it lies in the center of a strange, growing bubble of mysterious origin. While the ladies repair the ship and Will tries to rebuild the robot, Professor Robinson and Major West explore the bubble and discover it is actually an area of time distortion where alternate future versions of Dr. Smith and Will (Jared Harris) have constructed a time machine, powered by their Jupiter 2's power core. Will wants to use it to go back to the day they left Earth and stop the launch, since in his future his father left and never returned, and the women were killed by the spiders on the Proteus. The younger Will and Dr. Smith go after them, only Dr. Smith betrays Will and attempts to reprogram the future robot to take over the time machine. They are all betrayed by the future Smith, who is revealed to have transformed into a giant space spider/human hybrid as a result of the wound he received on the Proteus. He was the one to kill the women and kept Will alive long enough to build the time machine. He then reveals his plan to go back in time to Earth before the Jupiter 2 lifts off, destroy the ship, and conquer the planet to spread his spider race across the Earth. John tells Major West to take Will back to the ship and escape while Robinson battles Spider Smith. With the help of a dagger the younger Will made for him, John battles Spider Smith, wounding him and cutting open the egg sac with his young spiders in it. As the spiders eat their own wounded, they crawl out and consume Spider Smith, giving John the chance to send Spider Smith into the time machine's force field, killing him.

The family attempts to escape, but the time bubble has made the planet unstable, and it is violently breaking apart. In addition, without the core material the ship still does not have enough power to reach escape velocity. The stranded John Robinson watches as the Jupiter 2 is hit by debris and explodes in the sky. Future Will realizes his father does indeed love his family, choosing to save him rather than taking the core material from the time machine and escaping. Future Will reprograms the time machine and sends John through it, taking him back to the ship several hours before. Rather than attempt to escape into the atmosphere, John commands West to pilot the ship through the planet's core as it is breaking up, enabling them to use the planet's gravity to propel the ship through the other side. His idea works and they escape, but the collapsed planet forms a small black hole that begins to suck in the Jupiter 2. Once again the Robinsons must activate the hyperdrive to escape. They set course for Alpha Prime, having downloaded the detailed star charts from the Proteus, and launch themselves into hyperspace.

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Eric-62-2 from Morristown, NJ
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Frankly, I don't think this movie is as bad as some people make it out to be. I like the early episodes of the original series (particulary the first six), when the show had a more serious tone (and before Jonathan Harris sabotaged it by turning up the comic antics as Dr. Smith) and it's nice to see the film stay closer to that serious tone and not emulate the more campy aspects of the series from its later episodes. The cast is good for the most part and I love the visual FX.

However, once the Jupiter 2 crashes on the planet and we get caught up in the time travel older Will Robinson bit, that's when the movie falls apart completely. And the biggest mistake of all is that the older Will Robinson is not played by original Will Robinson, Bill Mumy, even though he badly wanted to play the part. Having listened to the comments of the director on why he didn't cast Mumy on the DVD, I have to say his explanation doesn't wash. Especially when both he and the scriptwriter concede that the device of using the "older Will Robinson" didn't work on the screen as it did in writing. It never occurs to them that maybe the scene would have worked if this new character sprung on us was someone with a definable connection to the old show.

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MitchellXL5 from Massachusetts
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Actually, I was quite surprised at how much fun I thought this movie was. Hardly perfect by any measure and, sure, there were some elements that were intrusive, but I found it to be quite faithful to the TV show - it used plots and elements from the early episodes. Even with the newer designs, they incorporated older aspects - the planet REALLY looked like a better version of one of their old sets.

Furthermore, Oldman managed to peg Dr. Smith perfectly, taking in all the old camp elements and putting them to very good use - even using some old catch phrases in different ways.

As diversionary, light sci-fi adventure goes, I thought this was great and I'm usually very picky about this kind of thing. It was fun and a pretty good kids' movie.

The only thing really missing was Billy Mumy.

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g-bodyl from United States
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I don't think Lost in Space was a bad movie. Is it a movie to be honored the all-time best? No, it's not. There are flaws in this movie, but I don't care too much. The movie is about a family, the Robinsons trying to go to the other habitable planet in the galaxy. They do all right until the villain, Spider Smith tries to kill the family and he ruins the navigational system. Now the Robinsons are lost. The acting is OK. Some of the actors did a great job such as Matt LeBlanc and Gary Oldman. The rest did OK. The special effects are not as good as movies from the time period such as Armageddon or Godzilla. The effects are good, though. I was disappointed in the writing. Akiva Goldsman is a respected writer with talent. For a bad script, all the actors did a good job. The music is pretty good. I liked the electronic soundtrack. I give this movie a 7/10 because I liked the space scenery, the gadgets, and the action.

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Amy Adler from Toledo, Ohio
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Dr. John Robinson (William Hurt) is taking his family into deep space to find a life-supporting planet for the human race. Things on earth are deteriorating, to say the least. Going along with him are his scientist wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), his brilliant daughter, Judy (Heather Graham) and his equally intelligent children Penny and Will. Needing a good pilot, Dr. Robinson nabs hotshot airman Mark West (Matt LaBlanc) to fly their spaceship. Evil Doctor Smith (Gary Oldman) tries to sabotage the vessel but ends up getting caught on board. Amid the ensuing chaos, the ship goes off course and gets lost. Between battling spider-like creatures and their own killer robot, the Robinsons still hope to reach their destination. Will they? This movie starts off with a bang and ends with a whimper. The problem? Well, it is not the terrific cast. Hurt, Rogers and Oldman are wonderful in their respective roles, while Graham and LaBlanc delight the audience with their wit and charm as the couple who provide the movie's romantic elements. All other cast members are quite fine as well. The production looks nice, too, with great costumes, sets, and special effects. So, that leaves the uneven script. It starts off well, with a quick look at the Robinsons' quest and the plotting of Dr. Smith. There are even some great lines, such as the one Maureen hurls at John and Mark, as they are sparring. "If you guys are done hosing down the deck with testosterone..." had me laughing heartily. But, it all just fizzles somewhere in the middle and ends up being utter nonsense, a plot without a cause. What a shame. Those of us who loved the sixties television series deserved better. If you are partial to any of the cast members, from Hurt to Graham to Oldman, do make time for this film, someday. They are the reason to see this movie, for they are a joy to watch, even in a film as lame as this one.

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David Goudsward from Palm Beach, FL
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I liked the movie, but I fear it suffered from the same disease that Star Trek The Motion Picture suffered from - too grandiose a concept, too grand an undertaking, too big an effects budget and enough plot for several movies. Lets see, we have the dysfunctional family becomes functional plot, we have the evil traitor in the med lab plot, the time travel plot, the metallic spider plot, the sexual tension between Dr. Judy and Major Don plot. This puppy had more subplots than a season of X-Files.

It was great to see Mark Goddard in a role with some meat on it. However Angela Cartwright and Marta Kristen were given extremely short shrift. And Bill Mumy and Jonathan Harris should have been involved. I know Jonathan Harris doesn't do cameos, but dammit, find him a role! And as for not getting Bill Mumy to play future Will Robinson - as far as I'm concerned, that singlehandedly reduced this flick from a great movie merely a good one. If they had enough money for the hideous yellow excuse for merchandising (how blatant can you get?), they sure had enough to hire the full original cast.

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boettcher30259 from moreland, ga
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Now, I don't think it was IMDb Top 250 material, not by far but it still should have been up in the "6"s. First let's look at the basic for the movie. Lost in Space was a television show from 1965 that was very low budget. I. Allen had to work from a shoestring and it showed. The show was a "kiddies" show, something that the kids enjoyed while Mom and Dad was able to snicker at the goofiness of it, (but not too loudly or the kids might get mad). Then the show progress into one that centered around three characters, that of Will Robinson, Dr. Smith, and the Robot. Mr. And Mrs. Robinson, Major West, and the girls were just so much window dressing and fodder. This is what the director of the movie, Lost In Space, had to work with. Either he kept as close to the original show as he could or he struck out in a totally different direction, such as what happen when they made Wanted Dead Or Alive for the big screen. It's not high drama, but then neither was the original show. Comparing it to the TV show, I believe that the director keep to the same spirit and I say it's not a bad rendering.

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ApolloBoy109 from United States
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I think the major problem was the lack of closeness within the family unit. The writers choose that as the overall arc and that was a deadly mistake. We needed to see this family battle the unknown enties in space, rather than each other.

I was not interested in seeing Dr. Robinson finally make amends with his son. By spending so much time on the 'family' problems, we negated any sense of adventure.

The plot should have been about something space, a distant planet instead of this internal examination. Lastly Dr. Smith was just awful. I love Gary Oldman but this role just wasn't one of his best. If nothing else Smith was a pain in the butt, the writers saw as evil and turning him into a spider and having the little spiders eat him was just plain stupid.

Once again the fault lies in a poor "Hollywood" script.

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Neil Welch from United Kingdom
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When Hollywood turns to the TV Mine to see what it can dig up, the general rule is to try to do something which recaptures the essence of the TV original, albeit tweaked in some sort of fashion so as to bring it up to date. But sometimes there is an attempt to give a twist to the original - to dress it in clothes which are not so much new as entirely different. And so we have Starsky and Hutch as a comedy, Bewitched actually featuring a TV remake of the original but with a real witch, and so on.

Lost In Space has, thankfully, forgone the overriding two-set (one interior, one exterior) studio-bound obviousness of its TV progenitor. It has also lost Robbie the Robot (his update is a lot less sympathetic than the original), and weaselly serial complainer Dr Zachary Smith. Much as I enjoyed Jonathan Harris' portrayal, it was essentially a comedy role, albeit with the capacity for introducing the element of dramatic tension in a serial drama which was so resolutely formulaic.

Gary Oldman's Dr Smith is an entirely different animal. The TV Smith was irksome, a nuisance, and could cause some damage. The movie Smith is dark, dangerous, and potentially fatal.

There are plot elements introduced which are fun and, in some respects, original. Most of the visuals are excellent (although I found the cute but hugely unconvincing CGI critter irritating). Most of the cast are good (with some interesting dynamics between the characters), although I found Lacey Chabert's squeaky pre-teen even more irritating than the CGI thingie.

On the whole, there is quite a lot here for science fiction space opera fans to like.

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Gyaos from Atlanta, Georgia
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The Lost In Space television series was one of my favorites when I was growing up so when I found out that it was the basis for a new movie, trepidation is the word that best described my reaction. As it turns out, my fears were unfounded as the result is one of the best, if not the best, treatment of older material and characters ever. Unlike this year's other movie based on a cultural icon, namely Godzilla, the producers of Lost In Space have a great deal of respect for the original tv series and this shows in the finished product. They have been able to update the story and characters, even changing the tenor of the story from farce to serious drama without losing any of appeal of the original. The inclusion of June Lockhart, Marta Kristen, Angela Cartwright and Mark Goddard in cameos and minor parts adequately demostrates the respect the production team has for the fans of the original series, which helps immensely in this adaptation. This is something that Mssrs. Devlin & Emmerich need to learn before unleashing any more destruction of cultural icons as they did this summer.

All in all, the movie is great family adventure entertainment. The story is simple enough, told in a caring way and is suitable for all ages. The acting well done, the writing & direction good and the visual effects rank amongst some of the best ever committed to celluloid.

Definitely one of my favorites and quite possibly one of the best science fiction films of all times. Old fans and those who never heard of Lost In Space will enjoy this movie.



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Gaylord M'sagro (caleb.bradley@c2i.net) from Oslo, Norway
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(Warning: spoilers ahead) Like many mature viewers I had enjoyed the 60's TV series before this film came out so I was prepared for kooky cardboard sets, an even kookier talking robot, and getting a new nadir of human mendacity revealed each week in my shameful anti-hero, the despicable cunning Dr. Smith - oh such Danger Will Robinson! As a teenage boy back then, I also registered the attractive mother Robinson, and even more so the disturbingly beautiful elder daughter Robinson; I have heard that I am not alone in this.

The film goes to great efforts to reverse all those impressions! It starts by throwing some of the most mind-blowing space battle special effects I have seen; the producers are obviously guys who have learned their lessons from 2001 Space Odyssey and Star Wars, and who have all the computing power they need. Silicon Graphics is a computer manufacturer who gets its name into the script, go figure.

Is this the point to carp at the unreality of the sounds made in space where you really can't hear any "whoosh" or "boom" as things explode, or at the fighters that manoeuvre in 3D, aim weapons and even nudge one another, all by manual pilot control ? Nah, that's an accepted style these days so let it pass.

The puerile homophobic dialog between the pilots (after their fighters contact in flight: "Does that mean we are going steady together now?") I chose to forgive in view of the magnificent graphics, but unfortunately such lines come back again and again in the miscast trying-to-be macho Major Don West's (Matt LeBlanc) passes at the cold-fish elder Robinson daughter Judy (Heather Graham).

Sadly it quickly becomes evident that Major Don's pursuit of Judy is to be a running subtheme through the movie. I say sadly because this is not Hepburn and Bogart, nor a school prom B-movie, and the characterisation neither serves the movie nor the viewer. (Don to Judy: "I'll be happy to let you investigate my dimensions" - oh puh-lease!) There simply is no chemistry between these two and their lines are a yawn because we don't need them to romance in this movie.

I said that the producers make great efforts, and those on space graphics are successful. Other efforts are on the family relationships, so much so that I became convinced that Walt Disney scriptwriters must have been involved. The younger Robinson children characters work well: I liked the sulky rebellious teenage daughter Penny (Lacey Chabert) though the dramatic device of her wrist-worn video diary was strained, and I was rooting for the son Will (Jack Johnson) who nearly makes a time machine for a school project, and repeatedly saves the day by tinkering with or remote-controlling the robot, who has grown from the capable but relay-filled Robbie of the TV series (adopted from the pre-computing Forbidden Planet movie of 1956) into a mightier cargo-handling monster, a Rambler-Crane model we are told, that owes much to its brother that Sigourney Weaver drives in the second Aliens movie I saw. This Robbie is bigger but less interesting for all its weaponry; by this time we have a right to expect more from a robot than this one delivers.

Unfortunately the movie's main familial theme of How Can Father Robinson Show That He Really Loves His Son Will left me cold, though it may go down well with a certain kind of American audience. This is worse than just a failed theme, it is supposed to motivate the final denouement that I can't spoil for you because I still don't understand it! Suffice to say that it involves time travel (more by machinus ex deia than deus ex machina) with by now rather overloaded special effects, that serve to gloss over with thunder/lightning/earthquakes such paradoxes as persons meeting their time-travelled selves, that obscuration also having become a Hollywood cliche since movies like Philadelphia Experiment and Final Countdown. A shame because intelligent time-travel themes have provided, and will continue to provide, some wonderful movie scripts.

The whole movie is, like the Robinsons' spaceship, a concatenation of expensive items that are individually impressive and collectively ineffective. Not to be outdone are the horrid space spiders. These seem to be downplayed to limit their horror potential; I think we get just a tiny glimpse of blue (?) gore as a spider leg gets chopped. We think the Robinsons escape from the spiders, but in true Hollywood horror tradition we were only supposed to think that and one spider makes a surprising return in the denouement, and I can't explain that either. It is actually very strange to see a "thing" that seems to have strayed into the movie from another film set (The Fly ? The Seventh Seal ?) too late in the script to be meaningful in the plot, and apparently also with its horror potential kept down, I suppose to keep a juvenile audience rating.

Yet another yawn item to mention in the movie is a computer generated monkey Blarp that is a baby "she" (we are told, perhaps because a she-chimp is less demanding to model ?). For all her blinky cartoon eyes, Blarp fails to impress me as cute or useful, and she also seems like a character that strayed in by mistake from another movie.

After watching all the movie action I feel I was served an assembly of highly crafted but utterly unoriginal elements. Yet for the earlier space graphics, which nearly rate up there with those in Starship Troopers, I can allow the rest as entertainment.

Can you believe that the end credits really spoiled the film for me? I don't think I am peculiarly sensitive about end credits, and I am as likely as anyone to leave the movie theater as soon as they start scrolling. But in this movie the end credits are used as an opportunity to dump a lot of inappropriate music and silly graphical effects, to no good purpose. In the light of some truly fine craftsmanship and set design that went into this movie, that ending was a cheapening that was almost insulting.

scientist|spaceship|robot|remake|based on tv series|planet|sabotage|sun|fighter pilot|major|hyperspace|year 2058|future|fireworks|three word title|woman scientist|female scientist|alien attack|alien creature|human versus alien|starship|alien spider|exploding starship|spacesuit|trapped in space|space western|time machine|babe scientist|cryogenics|laser gun|held at gunpoint|exploding planet|space battle|hologram|zero gravity|explosion|space exploration|outer space|family relationships|based on tv show|reverse footage|time travel|x rayed skeleton|sequel|alien creature as pet|2050s|space travel|time portal|stasis|mutation|insect|spacecraft|dysfunctional family|father son relationship|

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Certifications:
Argentina:Atp / Australia:PG / Belgium:KT / Canada:PG / Finland:K-8 / France:Tous publics / Germany:12 / Iceland:L / Mexico:A / Netherlands:12 / New Zealand:PG / Norway:11 / Portugal:M/12 / Singapore:PG / South Korea:All / Sweden:11 / Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) / UK:PG / USA:PG-13 (certificate #35916)