“Every school child has been lied to. Recycling technologies came too late. All fossil fuels are virtually exhausted. The ozone layer is down to 40%. In two decades, the Earth will be unable to support human life.” Prof. John Robinson (William Hurt) Lost in Space 10:45-11:00 (Hopkins, 1998).

This is possibly the most remembered line from Lost in Space. Not surprising considering, it was part of every movie preview I remember seeing leading up to its release. This film had a great premise, it was ripe for sitcom to big screen re-launch, it had actors people knew and loved, the movie had a production company that was so behind it it was already talking re-launching the TV show in both animated and live-action versions, and they had action figures (Wikipedia contributors, 2023)! So why is this movie widely viewed as a failure?

Let’s start with numbers. The movie cost 80 million to make and made $69,117,629 in US and Canadian box offices. Internationally it made an additional $67,041,794 for a total of $136,159,423 (Wikipedia contributors, 2023). While not being a blockbuster by any stretch of the imagination, neither market individually met or exceeded the 80 million put into the movie in the first place. Financially, I would say it was a bust too.

Critical reviews of the movie were in the 1-2 star range. The site consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “Clumsily directed and missing most of the TV series’ campy charm, Lost in Space sadly lives down to its title.” A truer quote I could probably never find even if I tried. The movie currently holds a tomatometer rating of 27% and an audience score of 24% (Lost in Space, 1998).

The weird moral in the space movie. In Star Trek The Voyage Home we had “Save the whales” (Nimoy, 1986)! In Lost in Space we had “Seriously, dude recycle! Or the planet will die” (Hopkins, 1998)! I don’t know why just over a decade later they decided we needed another movie to tell us to take care of the planet. Increasing concerns of global warming? I guess while we are on this subject, a movie that honestly did this message better would be WALL-E (Stanton, 2008). My only guess based on these intervals is that each movie helps a little and we are over due for another film to tell us to grow up and treat the Earth the way it needs to be treated…or launch ourselves into space on an unwitting and unwarned alien populace as soon as possible.

Awards and Accolades. The film was nominated for 6 Saturn Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Gary Oldman for his role as Dr. Smith. It was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel. At the 1998 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards the film was nominated for 5 awards and won Worst Supporting Actress for Lacey Chabert who played Penny Robinson (the middle child) (Wikipedia contributors, 2023). While I don’t feel her performance deserved such a nomination, I do think her character was not fully realized in the film. I do not blame the actress for literally not having enough screen time to have her character’s role defined.

Story. Based on the trailers and my parents’ recollections of the original television show I thought I would be in for a Star Trek or Dr. Who style adventure. The initial battle sequence right as you enter the movie was exciting! They slow us back down reminding us an entire family is leaving a planet behind, that young children are going to have feelings on that, and that any family making a move is going to have stressors going on (let alone a move to another Solar System). They introduce us to The Global Sedition, and their local agent Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman). The pacing in this film is difficult and that definitely comes across on the screen. Far from the action packed, witty, sci-fi movie I was expecting, I got more of a drama that was simultaneously too short and too long. I don’t want to give too much away in case any of you still haven’t seen it (Seriously? You should watch it, even if just to point and laugh at it).

Nevertheless, I left the movie feeling like a reboot was on the horizon and I was going to be here for it! I was going to support science-fiction, and a new twist on an old story, and aliens, and making your way to Alpha Prime! While the movie’s failure in the box office dashed New Line Cinema’s (and my) plans for reboots, we got a taste of what a reboot could be 20 years later. I watched season 1 and I have to say I think it was just as confused as the movie on what it was supposed to be.

I don’t have a good reason why I enjoy this film so much. It’s not really an action movie. While there are action moments, I would say only two are worthy of the name. One in the opening sequence, and one in the ending sequence. Well, at least they helped us build our hamburger. It’s not a romance, although one is awkwardly put into the film. It’s not a comedy. I would say there are some great one-liners, mostly between Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc), and Judy Robinson (Heather Graham). We are left with it is Science Fiction. It’s possible if New Line Cinema had continued with its plans of a reboot, it could’ve saved the iteration of the Space Family Robinson and made it an endearing accompaniment to an animated or live-action series. We’ll never know. Still, I always watch this movie at least once a year. I give the film 3 out of 5 stars for making it into my yearly rotation.