Stephan Hopkin's 1998 big screen revival of the cult TV series Lost In Space probably sounded like a good idea on paper. The director had found some success with genre material when he helmed A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 - The Dream Child and with the underrated Predator 2 and proved himself capable of making more serious dramatic fare with The Ghost And The Darkness. The fact that the likes of Gary Oldman and William Hurt had signed on for major roles in the film was also a big plus, and Heather Graham, fresh off of Scream 2 and Boogie Nights was a rising star at the time. Somewhere along the way, however, things went wrong.

The film is set in the fast approaching future of 2058 where almost all of the Earth's natural resources have been almost completely exhausted. As such, the planet is soon going to cease being able to support the humans who live on it, forcing world government organizations to have to do something about the problem. Their solution is to find a new planet that will support humanity and to relocate the entire human race by the use of a pair of specially designed Hypergates which will allow a mass exodus through space to a suitable planet.

While all of this is going on, a high ranking scientist named Professor John Robinson (William Hurt) decides to take his family -wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), daughter Judy (Heather Graham), younger daughter Penny (Lacey Chabert), and son Will (Jack Johnson) - on a mission with a fighter pilot named Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc) to a destination called Alpha Prime which they hope will be able to sustain humanity. What they don't know is that a sneaky no-goodnik named Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman) is working with a criminal organization called the Seditions who plan to uses the ship's robot to send their ship, the Jupiter 2, veering off course. When this happens, John uses the ship's hyperdrive but soon the family find themselves off course and, as the title suggests, lost in space, but Smith didn't make it off the ship before it went off course, which is obviously going to lead to some problems. The Robinson's now have to find their way home while contending with time warps, technological problems, and of course, Dr. Smith himself.

The film follows the same basic premise as the television series did but attempts to modernize it for a more current audience by injecting some depth into the family dynamic. Where the TV versions of the Space Family Robinson were pretty wholesome, here Penny is your typically troubled teenage girl dealing with her own adolescent issues while various characters deal with personality issues and the like. A subplot involving Major West's intentions towards perky, pretty Judy also rounds things out a bit. This makes the characters a bit more believable, but not really any more likeable or interesting. Thankfully, the film finds a saving grace with Dr. Smith, played devilishly by Gary Oldman who, if nothing else, excels at playing characters devilishly. Hurt is fine as the lead, playing John Robinson as a noble and well meaning man of good intentions and a strong constitution, but Oldman overshadows him at every turn, even if neither actor is really given all that much to do.

This is a film where the cast and characters play second fiddle to the set pieces and effects work. Rather than flesh everyone out and make them interesting to us, the film instead opts to try to distract us with effects set piece and fancy set design. It works to an extent, as there's enough action and intrigue and completely superficial excitement to bring you back around once you start losing interest, but it doesn't exactly make for the most memorable film you'll ever see. In fact, unmemorable is probably the best way to sum up the film. It's inoffensive and periodically entertaining but never more than that despite some fun moments with the cast and a few inspired effects set pieces.

Video:

New Line's VC-1 encoded 1080p 2.40.1 high definition widescreen transfer of Lost In Space is a decent one, showing spectacular color reproduction and strong black levels right from the start. Unfortunately, the transfer isn't always that consistent and there are quite a few shots and scenes that look just a bit on the soft side. Darker scenes get to be a bit muddy at times, and shadow detail isn't always going to 'wow' you but skin tones do look natural. The film shows the most improvement over standard definition in close up shots, where there's simply more to see. Some of the effects shots look a little bit blurry at times, but this is likely to do with the way that the film was shot rather than the transfer itself. Overall, yes, this does improve on the standard definition release, but it's not a revelation.