Rating of
2.5/4
Pretty much better than what the critics said
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
A world government-run space organization is in the process of creating a sort of space gate that will transport the world's population to a recently discovered planet that could sustain humans. The "Robinsons" (William Hurt as "Professor John Robinson", Mimi Rogers as "Professor Maureen Robinson", Heather Graham as "Dr. Judy Robinson", Lacey Chabert as "Penny Robinson" and Jack Johnson as "Will Robinson"), along with "Major Don West" (Matt LeBlanc) a "Robot" (voiced by Dick Tufeld, who voiced the same character in the original TV series) and the stowaway "Dr. Smith" (Gary Oldman) who sabotages the ship and "Robot".
Now, light years from home, the crew of the "Jupiter 2" have discovered an spaceship from an unknown species with alien plant life, strange spider-like creatures and a friendly creature (voiced by Gary A. Hecker) which changes its skin color to match its mood. They also discover that the planet they have crash landed on is being subject to rips in time.
Until the time traveling storyline appears, this is a fairly good movie. The movie starts off with a pretty good space battle where we meet "West" for the first time. One thing that this movie inaccurately depicts, as does the majority of space-based science-fiction is sound in outer space. In reality, you would not hear rockets firing or explosions due to lack of oxygen, which is needed for sound to travel.
The action scenes are fast-paced and are filled with action in fact. However, there really isn't a lot of action in this movie. The opening battle scene is probably the best action sequence in the entire movie.
The special effects are pretty good in this movie. CGI space crafts look pretty much more realistic than computer-generated. The spaceships look pretty good. The single-seat fighters we see at the beginning of the movie has to be the most original looking spaceships in some time. Other special effects appear to be variants of holographic images in the movie, one of which is used as a sort of an X-Ray Machine.
The performances are not that great. I didn't feel much chemistry between the two couples, one of which was a budding relationship between Graham and LeBlanc. I also could not stand Lacey Chabert and her annoying natural voice.
One problem in this film is character development. I've seen episodes of the original television series, and thought that the script writers took certain liberties with the plot of the TV series and the iconic characters. "Robot" has a new body with the famous "head" piece, and the children are a lot smarter than the ones on the television series. One of the kids is now a doctor in charge of the cryo-sleep pods, and "Will" is a computer expert much like a hacker is today.
Fans of the original series will like the cameos of the majority of television series. June Lockhart is mostly used for a few chuckles as "Will's" teacher who has called "Maureen" to discuss "Will's" behavior at school. "Will" hacks into the holographic system to change her body as she talks. Mark Goddard (the original "Major West"), Angela Cartwight (the original "Penny") and Marta Kristen (the original "Judy") all have cameos near the beginning of the movie. Out of all the original cast who appear in the film, Tufeld has the most time in the film as the voice of the "Robot" (and he does utter the most iconic line in the television series).
As for the music, it's mostly instrumentals. The music during the closing credits are pretty boring, especially the one song as the credits begin to role which has various lines from the movie mixed into it. And, as I think of it, I don't think an updated version of the original TV show theme even appears in this film.
Fans of the original television series will be pretty disappointed with the obvious changes in the film. Sci-Fi fans might like it if they can follow the time travel storyline, which was pretty confusing. I can't really recommend this as a "Must See" movie, but it could be a fair piece of entertainment when you come across it on HBO or on On Demand.
