It’s clear that the producers of this slick but soulless reworking of the delightfully silly sci-fi series—an intergalactic reworking of Swiss Family Robinson—were hoping to launch a franchise: the movie’s final scene ends on a cliffhanger. It did well enough in its opening weekend, knocking Titanic off its 15-week-long perch as the number-one film (and earning short-lived industry renown as the “Iceberg”), but audiences were largely unimpressed.
WHAT OTHERS SAID:
“When actors get the unaccountable yen to see themselves as plastic action figures, maybe a toy-crazy extravaganza like Lost in Space looks like a smart career move. Otherwise, this lavish venture into the realm of television reruns has more limited appeal. Ambitious enough to include 750 special effects, Stephen Hopkins’s version of the quaint, tinny black-and-white television show is often frenetic enough to suggest that all 750 are happening simultaneously.”
— Janet Maslin, New York Times, April 3, 1998
ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 27%
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFY5fW7sULg]