2010: The Year We Make Contact

How can it be so bad? Well, for one, almost nothing is explained or even examined, so the scientific and philosophical depth of the source comes across as half-baked whims. If I hadn't read the book, and certainly if I also hadn't seen the first movie, this would all look stupid. It'd be like the animated Hobbit from the 70s. It just looks like kid fodder, misrepresenting the depth. The 2010 story is well-examined by Clarke; the filmmakers fail to transmit this. And the unexamined sci-fi film is not worth making.

Second, it's artistically blah. Somehow nothing hits. I should be able to define this... yet it's obvious. It's just blah, compared to Kubrick. It's uninspired. Kubrick is singular, this is an infinitely standard 80s movie. The music (Strauss feels forced), the visual style, the acting, the writing,... it's all stale at best, sour at worst.

Third, it's technically blah. How are the special effects better in 1968 than 1984? This film looks older than the elder.

Fourth, it does a poor job of drawing from its source and the earlier movie, both of which it must reconcile. This Floyd is unidentifiable compared to the book and the earlier movie. Chandra is nothing like the book. Curnow (Lithgow) is mind-numbingly unfunny. Nothing about it feels like the earlier movie. It hijacks screenshots and a couple of actors, but bothers not with any of the soul. Spiritually, 2010 is not a sequel. Its opener ("My God, it's full of stars!") ushers the inauthenticity right off the bat. Even if that's Keir Dullea talking, the inflection sounds nothing like Dave of 2001, nor really, I expect, like anyone would sound in that scenario. How could anyone voice-act that line like that?

High points: Mirren putting on a normal performance, and Dave shapeshifting in the pod bay. The shapeshifting was cool, though nowhere near as unsettling or awe-inspiring as in 2001.

It's awe-inspiring how a space movie with such heritage can be so awe-less. Maybe it didn't help I read the book first, so there were no wonders.

1.5/4