If nothing else, 1998’s Lost In Space will live forever as the answer to a trivia question. When it hit screens on April 3, 1998, it became the first film to dethrone 1997’s Titanic from the top of the weekly box office charts.

Ever since the latter came out on December 19, 1997, Titanic remained number one. Three and half months later, Lost In Space finally knocked it off its perch.

And that's where comparisons between Space and Titanic end. The latter earned $600 million in the US and won 11 Oscars. The former took in $69 million and didn’t win squat.

Space finds us in the year 2058, at which time severe environmental concerns plaque Earth. A new world will be colonized, but terrorists called the Sedition try to affect this mission, as they’re working on their own scheme.

Dr. John Robinson (William Hurt) heads up the expedition to get things rolling on Alpha Prime, and along with John, his entire family will also go on the journey. This group includes wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers), doctor daughter Judy (Heather Graham), resentful 14-year-old daughter Penny (Lacey Chabert), and moderately neglected son Will (Jack Johnson). When the opposition murders their original pilot, hotshot rocket jockey Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc) gets forced against his will to take the controls.

Unfortunately, powers work against the Robinsons, mainly manipulated by Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman). He sabotages the ship and sends the craft on an unexpected journey that leaves the Robinsons… lost in space!

To be frank, Space lacks much spark, but I continue to think it seems reasonably entertaining. It delivers the kind of film for which you need to turn off your brain and just enjoy as mindless entertainment.

Lots of puzzling elements appear if you pay attention. For example, why does the Sedition exist?

Why do they feel the need for their own colonization plan? It sounds to me like the official government scheme will account for everyone, so I never understood why any competition existed, especially since both methods used the same technology.

But if I ignore logic, I can get into Space. To its credit, it doesn’t try to take anything too seriously most of the time and it embraces a nice comic book attitude that serves it well.

The film walks a fine line between irreverence and camp and usually treads on the satisfying side. Certain elements look self-consciously comic and come across as blandly goofy, but mostly the movie balances its elements reasonably well.

Oddly, the quality of the acting seems to split along gender lines - to a degree, at least. Most of the males offer fairly good work.

The notable exception comes from LeBlanc, who provides a broad and unengaging portrait of West. As young Will, however, Johnson proves nicely honest and warm, and he avoids becoming annoying or cutesy. Hurt also brings a good sense of purpose and heart to John, though he seems a bit flat at times.

The standout work in Space comes from Oldman. He most buys into the film’s nearly campy tone, and he makes Dr. Smith a scenery-chewing delight. Oldman pounces on each line with wonderfully droll elocution and offers easily the most entertaining aspect of the movie.

Unfortunately, none of the women do anything good with their roles. Perhaps that stems from the fact that their characters don’t get much to do in the film.

Space revolves mainly around the relationship between Will and his dad, and West and Smith get most of the remaining action. That leaves the women with little obvious activity, and the three actresses can’t overcome that problem.

Another issue seen in Space relates to its effects, though some of these work quite well. Even after 27 years, the space shots themselves tend to look convincing and distinctive.

However, the movie suffers from some genuinely abominable computer graphics, especially via the cartoony and wholly unconvincing renders of CG characters like space monkey Blawp. These openly detract from the film. They looked bad enough in 1998 and they’re truly atrocious in 2025.

Still, despite a number of flaws, I continue to enjoy Lost In Space. No one will ever mistake it for a classic, but it offers reasonably exciting escapist entertainment. It contains more flaws than I’d like, but those don’t overwhelm its general sense of fun.

Weird cliché alert: for the third time in less than a year, a movie came out in which others referred to Gary Oldman’s character as a monster. This happened in May 1997’s The Fifth Element and occurred again during July 1997’s Air Force One.

Fast forward to April 1998 and history repeated itself. I may have to watch more Oldman flicks to find out how often this occurs, but with three “monsters” in less than a year, he may have set a record.

Footnote: thought I called the alien character “Blawp”, a lot of folks call it “Blarp”. I can’t actually figure out which is correct but “Blawp” seems to dominate so I went with that name.

Lost In Space appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This was a generally solid Dolby Vision transfer.

Sharpness usually seemed fine. The ample use of effects and process shots left with some inconsistencies in terms of definition, but the film largely came across as accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge haloes seemed to be absent. Source flaws weren’t present, and given the movie’s ample amounts of grain, I didn’t sense notable use of digital noise reduction.

The movie displayed a nicely varied palette that came through well. Hues seemed rich and vibrant, with a boost from HDR.

Black levels looked deep and dense, whereas shadows felt appropriate. Whites and contrast enjoyed added punch from HDR. Though not a consistent visual showcase, the UHD looked good.

Even better, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Lost In Space consistently presented a lively and engaging piece of work. All five channels received an active workout that used the different speakers nicely.

Music provided good stereo imaging, while the effects materialized from all around the spectrum. Elements blended together efficiently and moved smoothly from speaker to speaker.

Surround usage appeared excellent, as the rear channels added a great sense of atmosphere. The opening fighter battle offered demo-worthy audio.

The scene in which the spiders move about a ship also provided creepy environmental work, though I felt the surrounds could have dominated that latter scene a little more. Nonetheless, the track provided very well delineated and localized material that meshed smoothly.

Audio quality also came across as solid. Although a few lines betrayed a little edginess, speech usually seemed natural and distinct, and I encountered no issues related to intelligibility.

Music sounded bright and bold and displayed fine dynamics and clarity. Effects seemed vibrant and accurate and suffered from no signs of distortion. Lost In Space worked very well.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the 2010 Blu-ray? Both provided identical audio.

As for the Dolby Vision image, it boasted superior delineation, colors and blacks. This turned into a good visual upgrade.

As we head to extras, we find two separate audio commentaries, and the first comes from director Stephen Hopkins and writer Akiva Goldsman. Both sat separately for this edited track.

Most of the time their remarks relate to the action onscreen, but they often veer off onto other topics. As such, it’s definitely not a strictly “screen-specific” piece.

Overall, Hopkins and Goldsman offer a very solid examination of the film as we learn about the project’s origins and hear about a wide variety of production issues. Hopkins dominates, as he goes over issues such as sets, effects, alterations made to the movie and a variety of problems encountered.

Goldsman chimes in with similar discussions, but he mainly talks about changes to the original script. It’s a nicely upfront and honest track.

While they don’t dish any dirt, we do get realistic appraisals of the concerns they experienced and things they would now do differently. Goldsman even relates some details of what direction a sequel would have taken. All in all, this becomes a very interesting and informative piece.

Next comes the “technical” commentary. It involves visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton, visual effects producer Lauren Ritchie, director of photography Peter Levy, editor Ray Lovejoy, and producer Carla Fry, all of whom were recorded separately for this edited track.

Bickerton and Levy heavily dominate the piece. The others pop up infrequently and occasionally offer some useful material, such as when Lovejoy chats about story alterations, but overall they remain firmly in the background.

Happily, Bickerton and Levy prove reasonably interesting and engaging during their portions. Obviously their comments stick strongly to technical elements, but their statements provide a nice education about their duties.

Levy mostly relates notes about lighting, which sounds dry and can be at times, but usually his remarks give us a solid understanding of his work. Bickerton covers a wider variety of topics and informs us about all of the different effects challenges.

Given the nature of the film, this means he goes into many areas, and he delineates the subjects well. They even criticize some of their work at times, with a particular negative emphasis on Blawp. While the technical commentary occasionally sags, it normally comes across as compelling and revealing.

In Building the Special Effects, we find a featurette about that area and Space. The program lasts 15 minutes, 55 seconds and offers comments from special effects supervisor Angus Bickerton, animation supervisor Mac Wilson, CG supervisor Lee Danskin, and Nick Lloyd of the Film Factory.

Some examples of effects material makes this show reasonably interesting, as we see a CG animation of the bubble fighter sequence and other CG shots. Wilson’s demonstration of computer puppeteering techniques used to animate Blawp also seems useful.

Unfortunately, a lot of the material repeats what we heard in the technical commentary. That means we don’t get a lot of new information here.

Q&A with the Original Cast lasts seven minutes, 34 seconds and includes information from June Lockhart, Angela Cartwright, and Marta Kristen. They chat about their memories of the show, continued fan interest, an old proposal for a sequel, and a few other topics.

The program suffers from a bland talking head presentation, so some footage or at least stills from the series would have been nice. It nonetheless offers a moderately engaging little conversation.

For a glimpse of science fact and what they saw as a potential science future circa 1998, take a look at The Future of Space Travel. This nine-minute, 47-second featurette involves comments The Tree People’s Jeff Hohensee plus The Planetary Society’s Charlene Anderson and Andre Bormanis, and Dr. Louis Friedman.

They discuss science fiction material that eventually came true as well as the truth of wormholes, the possibilities of Mars colonization, commercial spaceflight, and a few other subjects. The information provides a smattering of useful knowledge, but overall the piece seems a little dry and bland – and obviously the show could use an update 27 years later.

More footage appears in the Deleted Scenes domain. This features 10 excised clips, and the entire segment lasts 11 minutes, 47 seconds.

Accompanied by descriptive text to set up the snippets, this presentation seems quite interesting. I don’t know if any of the material should have made the final cut, but at least we find out what the women did while the guys explored the planet during the third act.

A collection of Bloopers fills two minutes, 44 seconds and gives us some of the usual goofiness. However, some entertain, especially when Gary Oldman camps it up.

From here we move to elements exclusive to the Arrow 4K UHD. A Space Odyssey spans 20 minutes, 58 seconds and gives us new notes from director Stephen Hopkins.

The filmmaker talks about how he got the gig and thoughts about the TV series as well as depicting the future, visual/set design, various effects, music, and the film's reception. Hopkins offers a good summary and an update on the flick after 27 years.

Lights in the Sky goes for 17 minutes, 27 seconds. It features director of photography Peter Levy.

The reel looks at cinematography and various challenges and experiences. Levy delivers an insightful view of his choices and the issues he confronted.

Next comes A Journey Through Time. This one runs 17 minutes, 56 seconds and involves producer/screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

“Time” covers how Goldsman got into his career as well as his work on Space, influences and genre thoughts. Goldsman provides a fine and frank overview.

Art of Space lasts 32 minutes, 17 seconds. It brings notes from supervising art director Keith Pain.

The featurette examines how Pain came to the film as well as set design and aspects of his work. With 32 minutes at his disposal, Pain delivers plenty of good insights about these efforts.

After this we go to Crafting Reality. In this six-minute, 54-second piece, we hear from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop former mould shop supervisor Kenny Wilson.

The artist discusses different effects elements he dealt with for the movie. Wilson offers a short but solid chat.

Sound in Space occupies nine minutes, 20 seconds. It features sound mixer Simon Kaye and re-recording mixer Robin O’Donohue.

Unsurprisingly, the movie’s audio becomes the topic of discussion here. The chat feels somewhat dry but Kaye and O'Donohue still provide some good notes.

Finally, Lost But Not Forgotten In Space fills 18 minutes, 32 seconds. Film critic Matt Donato provides a “video essay”.

Donato gets into the TV series and his thoughts about the cinematic version. "Lost" really becomes more of an appreciation than an informative essay, but Donato offers enough substance to make the piece worth a look - though his defense of Blawp might be a bridge too far!

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we get three Image Galleries. These split into “Stills” (467 frames), “Lobby Cards” (12) and “Stills from Puppeteer William Todd-Jones” (9).

Those last two have some decent elements, but most of what we find in "Stills" just displays shots from the movie. Although "Stills" includes some behind the scenes materials and ads, they're buried so deep into that long batch of frames that they're not worth the effort.

No one can call Lost In Space a classic film, and I definitely understand those who loathe it. However, I think the movie offers a reasonably exciting and entertaining piece of work that may not hold up to much scrutiny but it still comes across as moderate fun. The 4K UHD provides largely good visuals, terrific audio, and a long set of supplements. This becomes the best version of the film to hit home video.