I never watched the original television series of Lost in Space and after watching this film I am very glad I didn’t.

This film starts off with some good action shots of space ships battling in outer space, but soon the film starts to loose its appeal. The plot of the film is set in the year 2058 when apparently the planet Earth can only survive for another 20 years. Professor John Robinson (played by William Hurt) has the knowledge to build a Hyper Gate next to the planet Alpha Prime, so that the population of Earth can instantly transport themselves to this new planet and our civilisation can continue.

The trip to Alpha Prime will take ten years to complete so the Professor only agrees to go as long as he can take his family along with him. At this point the alarm bells start to ring as it is totally unbelievable that the whole future of Earth would be put into the hands of just one family, with a ten year wait to see if they are successful.

The pilot of the space craft is to be Major Don West, who is played by Matt LeBlanc. Yes, this is Joey from the TV show Friends and it is very difficult to believe that he is supposed to be one of the world’s best space ship pilots, especially when he tries some really corny chat-up lines on the Professor’s eldest daughter Judy (played by Heather Graham).

There are some good special effects and the film sets are pretty good. It is the storyline that is just very corny and often you feel yourself reaching for a sick bag as the family scenes are just not believable.

The acting is pretty good throughout the film and the alien life forms are well portrayed, but this is not enough to save this very sickly film. There is no real ending to this film as it is left wide open for a sequel.

With the mix of hyper-speed travel, time travel and space aliens the plot gets very mixed up with impossible situations emerging (even if you believe in time travel). Whoever was
in charge of continuity on this film must have got very confused as the plot never comes together properly.

From a light hearted point of view I suppose it is slightly entertaining and it may just be worth a viewing for the space shots and the performance by Matt LeBlanc, but it is certainly not a film that you would watch twice. If you have anything better to do then don’t put it off to watch this film.