Irwin Allen started a franchise with his 1965 TV show: there has even been a second TV series with Parker Posey as Dr. Smith. This very, very expensive 1978 space opera must be the result of millions of hours of digital labor, as the whole thing is a digital effect just as CGI wiped out conventional optical effects. It’s ‘Star Wars’ but for the whole family, get it? The old formula comes back with a massive production and a stellar cast: William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Gary Oldman, Matt LeBlanc and Jared Harris. It’s a 2-hour audiovisual barrage, and slightly less violent than the average space extravaganza.
Lost in Space
4K Ultra HD
Arrow Video
1998 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date September 2, 2025 / Available from / 49.99
Starring: William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Lacey Chabert, Jack Johnson, Gary Oldman, Matt LeBlanc, Jared Harris, Dick Tufeld, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, June Lockhart, Edward Fox, Angela Cartwright.
Cinematography: Peter Levy
Production Designer: Norman Garwood
Art Directors: Keith Pain, Steven Lawrence, David Lee, Nick Palmer
Costume Design: Vin Burnham
Film Editor: Ray Lovejoy
Composer: Bruce Broughton
Special Makeup Effects and Animatronics: Terry Jones
Visual Effects supervisors: Angus Bickerton, Lauren Ritchie (probably many more)
Written by Akiva Goldsman from the television series of Irwin Allen
Executive producers Michael De Luca, Mace Neufeld, Robert Rehme, Richard Saperstein
Produced by Carla Fry, Akiva Goldsman, Stephen Hopkins, Mark W. Koch
Directed by Stephen Hopkins
We were intrigued by the opening pilot episode of Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space. Not having a color TV, we didn’t realize that the first season wasn’t in color. It looked halfway interesting, and semi-serious. When I saw another episode a year later at a friend’s house the show was in color, but by then it had morphed into a semi-comic vehicle for Jonathan Harris’s Doctor Smith character, and was even dumber than Allen’s TV version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. At 14 years, I’d aged out of the whole concept.
We’re told that the prolific writer-director Ib Melchior had actually written up the idea of ‘Swiss Family Robinson in Space’ for Irwin Allen. He wasn’t credited on the original show, but received a courtesy credit on this reboot, which seems fair to us.
New Line Cinema didn’t go cheap on 1998’s Lost in Space, which clearly paid a lot to assemble its stellar cast. Gary Oldman, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham and Matt LeBlanc were clearly in it for the payday, as succeeding in ‘something the kids like’ was a good path toward career stability. William Hurt had been very picky with his projects. He had chalked up some good films yet his last major success had been a full ten years back, in The Accidental Tourist. When filming Wim Wenders’ Sci-fi masterpiece Until the End of the World the actor had railed against what he thought was a stupid story, with a stupid character. (or he may have just been irked by an extended schedule that messed up his work calendar.) But Hurt clearly applied himself to the ‘Ward Cleaver in Orbit’ requirements of Lost in Space. He and Mimi Rogers show full commitment, selling the film’s just-plain-awful dialogue without reservation.
Nobody’s slumming in Stephen Hopkins’ picture, least of all top star Gary Oldman. The accomplished actor had recently finished serving villain duty in both Air Force One and Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element, another space adventure with elaborate visual effects. Director Hopkins does well handling a gigantic production with an enormous number of complex effects. It’s a special talent, directing all that traffic. Hopkins certainly has career survival skills — we at MGM/UA were appalled by his lazy action thriller for two generations of the Bridges family, Blown Away, but his earlier The Ghost and the Darkness has sustained an okay reputation.
Lost in Space is jammed with plot complications,
all simmering in a sauce of ‘family issues.’
In 2058 a united Earth wants to relocate somewhere that hasn’t been ecologically ruined. The Robinson Family is picked to fly the Jupiter 2 spaceship across the galaxy to homestead the distant planet Alpha Prime. There they will assemble a ‘Hypergate’ portal to allow Earth pioneers to relocate to Alpha Prime in one instantaneous move. Paterfamilias John Robinson (William Hurt) concentrates on his research, and his wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers) thinks he neglects the kids. Grown-up Judy (Heather Graham) is a qualified space scientist and teenage Penny (Lacey Chabert) an impish rule-breaker. Spunky genius Will Robinson (Jack Johnson) pranks his teachers but also probes scientific ideas that would impress his father, if John Robinson ever paid attention.
Nasty terrorists are trying to stop the mission. Space fighter pilot Don West (Matt Le Blanc of TV’s Friends) saves the Earth Orbit’s Hypergate from a terror attack. He then learns that he will be the piloting the Jupiter 2, as terrorists have assassinated the chosen pilot. The launch goes without a hitch, but when the Robinsons go into hypersleep, an on-board defensive robot self-activates and attempts to destroy the ship. It has been reprogrammed by the mercenary saboteur Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman). But the wily Smith has also been double-crossed by his terrorist employer (Edward Fox). Waking up as an involuntary stowaway, Smith must help the Robinsons save the Jupiter 2, just to save his own skin. He becomes an untrustworthy, potentially treacherous fellow traveler.
As in other fantasy space missions, amazing technology finds a solution for every problem. The Jupiter 2 is falling into the sun, and the only way out is to put the ship into Hyper Mode. That lets it pass through the sun but deposits the Robinsons way out in the cosmos, who-knows-where. A combined effort keeps the damaged ship ‘afloat,’ but the nefarious Smith keeps trying to take control. The ship seems to have slipped somewhat into the future, as they encounter a derelict ship that has been trying to rescue them for years. They must deal deal with a monstrous alien infestation, a species of spider than can live in the vacuum of space.
The Family also adopts a ‘cute’ space creature called a Blarp or Blawp, a hairless monkey with the enormous eyes of a Merrie Melodies cartoon character. The Blarp is along for the ride — it doesn’t figure in the storyline or really do anything. The CGI animation is not bad for 1998, though.
The Robinsons eventually crash on an icy planet, where they investigate a force-field dome. Inside is a ‘power core’ that can re-energize the stricken Jupiter 2. Young Will’s ideas about time travel are proven, for they encounter ‘future’ versions of both Will and Dr. Smith. The adult Will (Jared Harris) wants to use the core to time/space travel back to Earth. Dr. Smith has become an alien monster, as he has melded with that nefarious species of space spider.
More detailed complications could continue for four pages, but we’re being merciful here.
Retained from the TV show is the ship’s massive robot, its booming voice provided by the original talent Dick Tufeld: “Danger Will Robinson”. Young Will can participate in various monster battles via ‘hologram control’ of the robot. As if operating a drone, he shoots the nasty spider monsters by remote control. Will also ‘tinkers together’ needed inventions, while fixing stuff for his older sister Penny. But his father (sigh) just doesn’t take him seriously. ‘Gee, if dad only listened to my time travel theories, everything would be peachy.’
The Robinsons work out their family conflicts in the gaps between constant catastrophes: wife vs husband and father vs kids. John and Don squabble over who is in command. The trickster Dr. Smith plots against all of them.
There’s of course a budding romance ‘twixt Judy and Don, which has appeal because Graham and LeBlanc do their best to make it cute and frisky. It might go somewhere if not for the awful dialogue, which makes LeBlanc’s Don behave as a persistent horn dog. Every line is a lame smart remark, laced with a hollow cliché or a bad sex pun: “Why don’t you just hang on to your joystick?”
Lost in Space is first and foremost a mass bombardment of CGI eye candy. It begins with an elaborate space battle and never lets up. The noise, threats, agitation, explosions and mishegoss occurs over and over again, repeatedly, without end. You know, it’s that word … redundant! This must have cost a pretty penny indeed, as so much of the show is augmented by CGI or entirely animated with computer graphics.
There is a genuine information overload in the onslaught of new designs and fancy animated technology. A kid of 12 will let this sort of thing wash over him, soak it up and take it for granted, as if drama is best served as an unending video game. It’s difficult to appreciate any spectacle, when a new MAJOR ATTENTION ISSUE arrives every ten seconds. Viewers seeking a story and characters to appreciate won’t find much … but we reluctantly agree that not everything has to have ‘something to say.’ Lost in Space certainly delivers the aforementioned eye candy.
But that screenplay … yikes. The soundtrack layers on tons of ‘radio exposition’ dialogue: everybody dumps out information to people who already know said information, because it’s really being said for the benefit of the audience. It’s practically a radio show — narrating itself to keep distracted viewers on the same page. We’ll bet that Lost in Space would be much more engaging without the constant, idiotic info-jabber. A lot of exciting things are happening. If the radio talk were cut down, we’d pay more attention to the visuals and participate more closely in the thrills. End of unwelcome opinionizing.
Lost in Space has plenty of good acting, with Hurt, Rogers and Oldman straining mightily to keep the show on its feet. They earned every dime they were paid. We can see where New Line’s money went — into sophisticated design work and hundreds of complicated, fully CGI animated shots. There are so many ‘miracle’ visuals that we soon stop seeing them as special. The finale sets up an immediate sequel — another Hypergate jump may take them closer to Alpha Prime. Two more movies were planned but never filmed, perhaps to form an extended ‘Robinson Crusoe Odyssey.’
Arrow Video’s 4K Ultra HD of Lost in Space is a picture-perfect presentation of this elaborate special effects spectacular. The 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative was commissioned by Arrow Films and approved by director Stephen Hopkins.
The visuals are exceedingly dense, with angle after storyboarded angle captured and finessed by 50 expert hands. Twenty years earlier, only studio department heads received screen credit for visual effects. By 1998 we were seeing marathon end credit scrolls with hundreds of credits. I can still remember what most everyone who contributed to Close Encounters actually did on the show. The number of new categories of jobs on a full-on CGI picture is staggering. Much of the work is done by farms of pixel-pushers — Highly Skilled digital artists. Many creative contributors never meet their colleagues in person.
Be careful when ordering to choose the right format. The Blu-ray and 4K UHD versions are separate releases.
Arrow’s disc producer Raphael Messina lined up older extras for Lost in Space and created a series of new interview extras. Matt Donato contributes a video essay as well. An exhaustive list is below.
The insert booklet has some American Cinematographer article excerpts that show what took the fun out of special effects. Photo-real images got better and better mostly because computer programmers were able to refine their techniques. But audiences still respond best to solid storytelling and compelling characters. Lost in Space looks consistently great, but it all feels very familiar. It goes into the category of ‘glad I saw it’ and ‘in no rush to see it again.’
That doesn’t mean that kids won’t love it. We hear the word ‘shit’ two or three times, which gets the film a PG rating to avoid the dreaded ‘G.’ The grotesque Smith-Spider monster will freak out some kids, but probably not disturb those that have had any access to commercial television.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Lost in Space
4K Ultra HD rates:
Movie: Noisy, Busy, Bright and Flashy
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio
Supplements:
New Interview featurettes:
• A Space Odyssey with director Stephen Hopkins
• Lights in the Sky with director of photography Peter Levy
• A Journey Through Time with producer / screenwriter Akiva Goldsman
• Art of Space with supervising art director Keith Pain
• Crafting Reality with Kenny Wilson, od Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
• Sound of Space with sound artists Simon Kaye and Robin O’Donohue
New video essay Lost But Not Forgotten in Space by Matt Donato
‘Archival’ extras:
Audio commentary with Stephen Hopkins and Akiva Goldsman
Audio commentary with visual effects supervisors Angus Bickerton and Lauren Ritchie, director of photography Peter Levy, editor Ray Lovejoy, and producer Carla Fry
Featurette Building the Special Effects with effects supervisors Angus Bickerton and Mac Wilson
Featurette The Future of Space Travel on the film’s vision of the future
Featurette TV Years a Q&A with the original cast of the TV series
Bloopers
Deleted scenes
Illustrated 42-page insert pamphlet with an essay by critic Neil Sinyard and articles from American Cinematographer.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra HD in Keep case
Reviewed: August 31, 2025
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