As a pre-pre-schooler, I somehow remember being plopped down in front of the family television to be baby-sat daily by a string of old reruns that included Lost In Space, the 1965-68 science fiction series following the marooned Robinson family on endless endeavors in the farthest reaches of space. Because I’d already experienced the Star Wars phenomenon by this time and fallen in love with my first Darth Vader and Greedo action figures, the Lost In Space shows seemed rather hokey and boring pretty critical for a 4-year-old, huh?

Now that the television series has undergone the wash-rinse-spin-dry cycle of a major Hollywood studio for a big screen release, Lost In Space hardly seems hokey. Well, the special effects don’t, but the story sure could have used some fine tuning.

The ’98 version retains the same players as the television series with a popular and partially strong cast to play them. Professor John Robinson (William Hurt), his wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), their daughters Judy (Heather Graham) and Penny (Lacey Chalbert) and son Will (John Jackson) have been selected to be the first family to begin the colonization of outer space. It turns out Earth in the year 2058 lacks certain elements to maintain human life, and rapid depletion of the ozone layer doesn’t make the planet any more of a happy place to call home.

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Commandeering the Jupiter 2 spaceship taking the Robinsons to the only charted planet with the capacity to sustain life is Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc). West and the Robinsons are not alone because the nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman) inadvertently stows away for the ride after a bumbled attempt to destroy the intergalactic mission.

Smith succeeds in part because he prevents the Robinsons from reaching their initial destination, but his foiled sabotage plan only buys him a ticket to nowhere land alongside West and the family.

Once the crew get their bearings straight and figure out what happened, they begin to encounter one problem after the next. With each problem comes a bonus for the audience because the special effects start to take center stage and, like the dynamic surge of cinematic wizardry in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, the effects begin to overshadow the characters and story.

West and the Robinsons encounter space spiders with giant-sized fangs, the sun’s gravitational pull and time travel all in their attempt to find a familiar constellation for homeward navigation. But the surfacing predicaments only prove fulfilling with effects like the hyper-space time pause or the freakish, computerized human and space monster transmutation.

Sometimes director Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost and The Darkness) borrows from science fiction masterpieces a bit too obviously. The opening space dog fight resembles any such scene from the holy Star Wars trilogy, and while our heroes investigate an abandoned space cruiser there should have been a disclaimer noting the scene was straight out of Aliens.

Writer Akiva Goldsman (Batman and Robin) helps the special effects become the only thing really worth watching with a mediocre script bathed in dull dialogue that tries to carry out a human element. John’s studies and work distance him from his family so the family must come together to save themselves from intergalactic problems as well as to keep the family together. Ooh, can they do it?

LeBlanc warbles one-liners just like Joey from Friends, but I found myself laughing at a couple. Always the bad guy, Oldman fits the Dr. Smith character perfectly. Jackson turns out to be the most interesting character to watch because he keeps the little kid role from getting cutesy as opposed to Chalbert as the punk teenager with an attitude.

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Though I don’t remember much about the original episodes of Lost In Space, the voice of Robot belching out Danger! Danger, Will Robinson is forever etched in my mind, so it was interesting to see Robot back. But if not for the brilliant special effects, the screen version would have been nothing more than the television show to me time filler between Green Acres and The Banana Splits.

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Written by Akira Goldsman

Dr. Zachary Smith……………………Gary Oldman

Major Don West……………………….Matt LeBlanc