Lost In Space 1998 wasn't a horrible film, but what I think detracted from it was the over-emphasis of the dysfunctional family. I love the original LIS because it provided a possible and hopeful view of the future. Sure, they had their moments/ conflicts, and to be honest, many of the episodes were cheesy, but in the end, the family survived and hope continued. Too many shows work SO HARD at making their programs filled with "losers" that in the end, we just don't care about them. Give us back the hopeful idealism we had in the 50s and 60s.
We need to stop looking to Hollywood for family values and rollmodels!!! The people who control the content would rather destroy the family unit and sexualize children!!!
And what's more, they should have let Jonathan Harris reprise his old role. He could have done for the movie what he did for the series AND knocked Titanic right out of the water. No man can scream like Dr. Smith does.
Overall, I really liked the 1998 LIS reboot. Casting worked well and the story did not heavily depend on FX, although there was plenty of FX to see. It seems the spirit of character interrelationships deviated from the spirit of the original series enough to annoy original fans. For example; Although Prof. Robinson and Major Don West didn't always see eye-to-eye in the original series, they were outright at each other's throats in the reboot. But, in the end, Will and Dr. Smith and the Robot interrelationship in the reboot remained faithful to the original series. Personally, Matt LeBlanc is a great choice for sci-fi and wished he did more in his career. As for the Netflix reboot...It is an interesting premise, but story development draaaaaaags way to long (4 episodes and I'm almost ready to lose interest). I do not like the idea of divorced Robinson family and I don't care if it somehow mirrors present day. This is fantasy entertainment and, like beloved westerns of the 1960's, it's nice to see good ideals prevail. All-in-all, it would have been nice to see the 1998 version produce more movies and possible TV series with the actors as they were cast.
Tony they’re not going to divorce don’t worry. If you keep watching it actually gets better and I like how season 1 went slowly since it shows how the character develop without rushing. Season 2 felt like it was kinda rush but I still enjoyed it. I guess i just like these type of shows since I finished it in one day and is waiting for season 3. I suggest that you should still watch and if you don’t like it then you don’t, I just don’t want you to miss out on what I think is a masterpiece.
I loved this movie when I first saw it as a kid. I never understood why others didn’t seem to like it as I did but I never watched the original show, so I didn’t have anything for the movie to live up to. I also had a major crush on Lacey Chabert. For what it’s worth, I’ve liked the new tv series.
I really liked this film when it came out. Saw it twice in the theaters. Got a lot of the merchandise related to the film. It had great designs, better than what you see in most sci fi films. Even some of the science behind it was good, minus the time travel stuff. Like using the Sun as a means to slingshot to leave the solar system. Never saw that idea in a film before.
Yeah, I really found the movie enjoyable...and again, after a while, in a guilty pleasure kind of way. And the new show definitely has some killer visuals. The stories are entertaining.
The only thing that struck me and always remembered was that TV recorder thing Penny used all the time, like her own show. Now where have I heard of that kind of thing before?
@TheBrabon1 THANK YOU!!! I was just gonna comment that her voice and sarcastic, smart ass acting, aggravated the shit outta me, and I come across THIS comment??? AND those replies ??? I hope those weren't from grown men, cuz that kid looks about TWELVE!! Any boy over the age 13, who finds her "hot", is a fucking weirdo !!
Good video, thanks. Did not know Billy Mumy had been rejected for the role. When I first saw the film I came out thinking "why in the hell didnt they hire Billy for the role?!"
I knew Billy Mumy was upset about not being cast as future Will, but I didn't know he was offered any other part. I thought he would have been perfect for that role, which shows how our of touch the director was. Real fans would not be "confused." This was a clear example of hiring all the wrong people. As a stand alone film, I enjoyed it for what it was. As a remake of the original show, it was a poorly written, highly invested attempt to profit from a prior fanbase. The new Netflix reboot therefore was heavily scrutinized by classic fans before it released. I believe it is a great adaptation and clearly was made with the fans in mind.
He told me-he thought the script was awful-- which it was-.and after they wouldn;t let him play WILL he just had no interest in appearing. Jonathan-well There can only be ONE Dr Zachary Smith....
I like the movie, mostly. It was basically two hour-long episodes packed together. For me, part of the problem with the feel of the film is how much of a moron Don is. "Shoot-only, don't think at all" mentality didn't fit. And they absolutely blew it in deciding not to cast Billy Mumy as the older Will. "Confuse the audience"? What? I guess underestimating the intelligence of the audience was a major failing.
Of course the end credit theme(and music video on the DVD) had the spirit and sense of fun that that the movie itself should have had. Gary Oldman("Evil Knows Evil") was with it. It was a good movie anyway, the casting of eccentric William Hurt and(given nothing) Mimi Rogers . Lacey Chabert cute and funny.
I liked the movie but had 2 complaints. The damned animated little alien and the fact that Bill Mumy did not play the older Will Robinson. Hidden easter egg (look for Lenny James -Walking Dead/Jericho in a role as a fighter pilot).
People always kill the good looking for the perfect. Rarely is a first iteration of a movie or series good. Star Trek the Next Generation was god awful the first season, but the writers and producers learned from their mistake and fixed most of the issues and it became one of the best sci-fi series ever. I think if fans had given the movie version of Lost in Space a chance, it would have been much better in the next films with the writers and producers learning from the first. Same with the Netflix version, I believe the next season(s) will be better because the writers and producers will learn from feedback what they need to fix. Stop trashing and provide critical feedback, that way we can least have chance to get something great from mediocrity. For the record, I enjoyed the film and the new Netflix series. For me, all they have to do is take a project seriously and show good effort for me to enjoy the production. Perfection is only icing on the cake.
I recently rewatched this film and it holds up a little better than I remember. Overall I was disappointed as a fan of the original series, but I think it may have been the best they could have done for the time. Expectations to reach a modern audience who does not get or appreciate "campy" style will always impact the source material for fans. As for Netflix version, I did not enjoy it at all. Dr. Smith wasn't even Dr. Smith (who oddly enough WAS Billy Mumy) but had his identity stolen. However, Season 2 does have hope with the all the lines being drawn now and them being "lost" from the group.
Lakewood Live_Archive I honestly love the actor for dr.smith(LIS 2018).She has a way with getting on my nerve that makes me want to kill her and that shows you how much of a good actor she is. Her manipulation is also quite exciting to watch since I want to know if she will finally get caught or not.
Jonny, I tried watching the Netflix series. I didn't like any of the characters except Will. I loved the original series. And I thought the movie was so-so, but I enjoyed it. Thanks for this video!
The '98 LIS is a guilty pleasure of mine, saw it after finishing school with a bunch of friends and it reminds me of happier times... also, the score by Bruce Broughton is pretty good and FUN, I love it! :-)
I make no apologies, I genuinely enjoyed this flick...it was FAR more engaging than the embarrassing, one note series it was based on, and had a nice story, decent characters, fun effects and a memorable score...a shame it did not do better...
This movie isn't exactly "good", but I liked a lot of things about it at the time. The design of the Jupiter 2 is really nice, and I like both forms of the robot (I even had the toy of it, eheh~). The plot was interesting on paper, but the execution could have been a lot better. Honestly, I'd have been excited for a sequel that could build on what this one set up!
Dang, I really wish that they had done the sequels, I really liked this lost in space movie. The original and series were ok sometimes, but I could only stomach a few minutes at a time of watching dr smith. The netflix series is good and I hope they continue it.
I thought of A few more Films from the 1990's, Event Horizion, StarShip Troopers, Contact, Super Nova, Species, The Fifth Element, Independence Day, Men in Black, Wing Commander, Terminator 2 Judgment Day and Stargate..
It's a solid movie. Not forgettable. The spiders were creepy. It communicated well. A few missed opportunities however, and Jared was way dark. It hurt, not a happy story.
I was a huge fan of Lost in Space as a kid when I first saw this movie I didn't really care for it but after watching it a few more times it grew on me and one more thing I've always had a crush on Penny Robinson❤❤❤
I don't envy the writers and producers of this movie, besides the usual conflicts of sticking to the original themes and style or trying something new you have the complication of the original show itself having radically different styles and themes throughout its short run, starting as serious science fiction drama similar to Star Trek a few years later and quickly declining into a clownish children's show including vegetable people!
I worked on this film 😄 The 'Bubble Fighter' sequence at the start. Took a team of 4 one year to complete at The Magic Camera Company in Shepperton Studios
First, enjoyed LIS the series, especially the first season. A few episodes from the 3rd season tried to make up for the failure of season 2. Second, the movie had its moments - the launch, the crash landing, the special effects, the music and Matt LeBlanc. Third, the reboot is far better then the second and third seasons of the series and the movie. Can't wait for season two.
I loved this movie and I was a big fan of the original series.. I didn't think I would like the new Lost In Space, but after watching an episode or 2, it really grabbed me.. This movie though, I must be the only one who enjoyed it. I was the first in the theater to watch it on opening day..
Lol, you did a Doctor Smith impression! I enjoyed this video very much, thank you. It’s a movie I can still enjoy, especially as on the Blu-ray version they’ve ‘fiddled’ with the CGI a lil bit. Blarp is still gawd awful, but at least Spider Smith doesn’t look like a badly rendered PlayStation 1 FMV anymore, he’s at least PS3 quality now! ;)
I read that LIS book a long time ago. I seem to remember that Matthew Perry was cast as Don West and started work on the film but then got cold feet and left. Gary Oldman is the best character in this movie and he actually mimics many of Jonathan Harris' vocal patterns and mannerisms. He is a hoot. Billy Mumy was really upset he didn't get that adult Will role and refused a cameo. He would have been very good in that role and the audience members would have approved. The director has some negative things to say about Mumy in the films DVD voice-overs. Maybe, if Hollywood would stop hiring directors who have never seen the source material (Star Trek did this as well, Robert Wise) they would understand what was going on. Also, Ib Melchior (a legend in sci-fi works of the 60's) was finally given credit for the concept which Irwin Allen flat out stole from him. The funny thing is Ib was such a pain to this movies producers they eventually the kicked him off the film. I'm sure he saw some money off this but never got his financial due as the creator.
knowing that it was a series before i saw the movie, i was totaly confused after the movie ended. i didnt expect such an open ending, which for me, only made sense, if they planned to make a series afterwards. and that never happend
I saw this when it came out. Watching it, I thought the film was great, right up until the time when they actually became lost. Then the plot kind of fell apart and got somewhat convoluted. The aspect of time travel was handled very poorly, I thought. Too bad, because I used to watch every episode when I was a kid in the 60's.
I loved this movie right up to the point that the CGi bloop abomination appeared. The totally discordant amateurish cartoon style and poor unrealistic unbelievable design totally destroyed the suspension of disbelief the decent acting, costume and set design and fantastic effects quality of the rest of the film's lovely updated production design had established . It was like introducing Roger Rabbit as a character into the middle of Saving Private Ryan and totally undoing the mood established . Trying to understand how this eyeball insult came to be that sabotaged the great potential of the franchise and reading about it in blogs and cinefantastique and cinefex etc later, It seems the Henson company had wanted to showcase the adoption of their puppeteer hand operated Henson performance control system that could apply hammy "spontaneous" puppeteer hand muppet actions to CGI characters as well as their usual puppet animatronics. The designs were in the signature Henson comical cartoony style rather than something that matched the realistic modern tone of the rest of the film. Vertically elongated Tex Avery style eyeballs that couldn't possibly fit in a real organisms skull or even pay attention to the anatomy of a bushbaby?? Who cared! obviously not the creature designers. .. Those boffins involved seemed to be technology fundamentalists rather than big picture realists conscious of the tone of the film and the requirement of the considered subtlety and refinement possible with carefully keyframed animation. Similarly the heavy hydraulic Robot was operated by the same control system with no proportional gain control to slowly send the servo valves command signals as the system booted up and so the powerful hydraulics could fly into wildly powerful un-commanded positions that potentially could injure the actors and inadvertently throw them across the stage. The actors were very wary appearing on set with the robot and the set floors had to be heavily reinforced to take its full weight of meticulously machined metal parts. Rather than make a lightweight but impressive vacuformed functional movie prop as per the power-loaders of Jim cameron's "Aliens" the Henson "mechy mafia" as they were known wanted to make a fully functional robot for its own sake rather than serve the actual requirements of the film.
I was wondering why Jared Harris sounded so different in this movie!!! I had chocked it up to him Bing significantly younger than his roles in Fringe and The Expanse, where I primarily know him from.
I love this movie. I always hoped that they would make the sequel. Maybe someone will reboot the movie. I am not talking about the show on Netflix but actually make another Lost In Space movie.
All I know is that if Heather Graham and Mimi Rogers would have appeared in Bikini Tops in the Movie, the Worldwide Box Office Gross would have exceeded $200 million.
Indeed. I absolutely agree with you. Even the Netflix version ended up as a big disapointment, fake copies, and 100% false to be called Lost in Space - The original one catch our dreams due to some simple and original facts like a mix of daily time routine and sci fi ideas. Etc.
I was a fan of the original Lost in Space and my favorite character was Dr. Smith. Jonathan Harris was the best! I was 10 years old when it came to TV. (I had a secrete crush on Penny Robinson) :)
This film was a little confusing toward the end and derivative of other SF franchises (e.g., Aliens), but I liked the LeBlanc character and the Will actor and in general I got my money's worth. Should have had one sequel, anyway.
I enjoyed the original series and I also enjoyed this movie. If you compare this movie to the original series, then you will probably hate it, which is what I think most people did. But judged as an independent movie, I found it quite entertaining.
I really liked this movie, watched the first time when I was a kid in VHS and when it come on tv I always re-see it, I didn't know that actors was scripted for 3 movies but sadly 2 and 3 was not filmed
If you watch the very few behind the scenes bits, the film would have been much better with the Blarp PUPPET they used. It was supposed to be so the VFX crew could see the lighting for the computer render of the character, but they also had a weird traditional animation one, and the final version mixes both together in a totally weird manner. So the actors were reacting to the puppet, memorizing their movements, and redoing the scene right after. Thing is, if you watch the rough CG... it ignores both sources and does it's own thing. For me the cardinal sin of this wasn't the acting, which was passable... it was the combination of Spider Smith looking totally ridiculous in the reveal, and the the MANY cut scenes. There were multiple time jump domes with different seasons, a grown up space monkey they take with them that was totally practical effects, and a bit more character development for everyone. Literally without the latter you don't know why half the cast does anything.
The movie would have been a bigger hit except for the fact that it comes to an absolute dead stop once they crash on the alien planet. It was pretty decent and fast moving up until that point.
I found that he did not generate the feeling of a devoted father interested in the welfare of his family. Rather, it was all about the mission, and his family were little more than pawns needed to fulfill it.
He also seemed conflicted and even confused, where the original John Robinson is stalwart, strong and the family's source of dependability. In other words, he was a male role model. Of course in recent decades, that has become unfashionable to portray in any form.
Jar jar was in 1999 so this came first, but I think the Mars Attacks martians where the first main CGI characters not being cameo dinosaurs or small parts.
Here here , well said John as the founder & president of LISA (Lost in Space Australia) Fan club 1992 to 1995 during the time period the movie screening we all were so looking forward to it & even though I thought it was ok to good as a sci fi movie , but as Lost in Space apart from a few good things which you have stated in this video , I thought the overall movie was crap , they ruined what could of been one of biggest franchises of a classic cult following tv show in to movies ever! & yes the netflix tv remake is good , it still does not ressinate with the classic fans cheers Ken
I liked this movie. I was a big LIS fan when I was a kid. If you look at it as a stand-alone film without the series reference, it's not too bad by itself.
The movie had a 'Yoda style' Blorp puppet by the Henson shop, that was replaced with awful CGI. The film was locked into a release date, and was let down by some of the CGI effects providers not delivering on time, or delivering sub-par effects. This meant that a hastily re-edited third act had to be cobbled together with the effects shots they did have. Blorp was due to be a larger part of the third act which is why it needed to be in the early scenes. The planned ending, which was a lot more timey whimey, would have been much better, and probably avoided some of the criticisms leveled at what was released, effectively an unfinished film. The first two acts are really good, and atmospheric (except unfinished Blorp).
The DVD has a production scene where Gary does his scene for his spider guy thing then at the end he yells out "now stick that in your fucking computer!" It's pretty funny
Blaarp was realised after Jar Jar Binks? ... Wrong ... Blaarp appeared before Binks, by at least a year. LIS was released in 1998. The Phantom Menace was released in 1999 ... When I first saw LIS in 1998, I wondered way back then in the cinema why Billy Mumy wasn't playing old Will. Also, one scene that was cut from the DVD release was the scene where Captain Daniels was shot at his home. It was in the theatrical release. Usually it's the other way around.
The main problem with the movie is that, to save money, the producers changed of SFX companies, for smaller ones. The results were SO bad that some SFX were not used at all, ad to that the fact that some were deliverd to the production AFTER the theatrical ralease, or NOT AT ALL... Therefore, the editing of the movie whas remade without many scenes and subplots because of the lack of SFX for those scenes.
It's surprising how our views differ - I never watched the original series, really liked the movie (was a child back then) and couldn't get further than the second part of the new series (was torture that lasted almost a week as I couldn't even watch a single part from start to end)... It is a shame that my breed is going the way of dodo and high quality point and click adventure games.
It was ok for me. The special effects were great though, such as the outer space shots/battles, they would hold up today. I would not mind a total movie reboot with new actors, though different from the netflix version. Or do a film version of the netflix series with same actors, much like when Star Trek TOS & TNG went cinematic. A sequel to this 1998 movie would also be cool, but probably not practical. It would be the same actors (Hurt, LeBlanc, Rogers, etc). Oldman would return too, because by some plot device, Zachary did not really get torn apart in the time portal. The plot would obviously have to be some 20 years into the future because the same actors are that much older now since 1998.
i used to run home from school to catch the original series, the movie made me want to run to the bathroom, the new series i quite enjoyed, looking forward to season 2, but i dont run so good these days :)
