2001 - A Space Odyssey DVD > Reviews > Could Have Been A Great Film On Its Own

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Good sfx, actors try hard, sound, atmosphere, could have been great
Disadvantages:	Dumbed - down storyline, tries to live up to its mystical sequel but fails

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

It was always going to be a difficult job for director, Peter Hyamms to lift this sci-fi film into the same kind of classical Valhalla of Stanley Kubrick's original 2001 (1968). Even with big budgets, gee-whizz sfx and better production values Hyamms must have guessed that all this counts for naught if you don't can't get the right emotional "feel" one got from the original.

If one forgets 2001 and puts 2010 in its own context then it is a very good film, a trifle contrived perhaps but nicely done. I think using the rather dated Cold War as a sub plot to US/USSR space co-operation was bad & silly idea, cheapening the film with a thin backdrop in spite of the film being made during the height of the real Cold War between the two superpowers.

Basically what we have is a US/USSR joint space mission to find out what happened to the Discovery mission taken from 2001. The trip takes them out to the planet Jupiter and its many satellites where they find, to their surprise, thousands upon thousands of the same giant monolithic slabs that the Discovery team found on the moon from 2001.

Roy Scheider (of Jaws fame), John Lithgow & Helen Mirren all do competent jobs with their roles but you just get the feeling that they know they are walking in the ghostly footsteps of the original 2001 cast. That the audience expectation for them to live up to 2001 is so demanding that these stars just don't lighten up & and let their natural acting abilities take over.

But we can't kid ourselves for long. For those 2001 diehard fans, 2010 is a dumbed down, Hollywood manipulated mess of a film. The mystique is absent, everything is explained so easily that it feels as if we've all been sent back to junior school learning our alphabet all over again.

The ending has the classical markings of Hollywood Correctness. Give the audience visual answers and let them leave the movie house happily entertained, that's their blinkered motto. It's as if Hollywood had nothing but contempt for the wonderfully abstract & intellectually demanding original so to get their own back they offered us this limp sequel.

It really is harsh on both the director, the actors and the production crew, because either way the dice is loaded against them. If the film was seen as a box office success then the same die-hard 2001 fans & film critics would have bemoaned the dumbing down of their movie; while if it had failed then it would have been seen as a poor sci-fi film alround.

2001, is the kind of film that doesn't need, and shouldn't have a follow-up sequel, in spite of Arthur C Clarke's Odyssey serialisation. 2010 is like a bastard off-spring, or an orphan desperately looking to be loved. 2010 on its own could have been a great movie given a different title but now it will always be cast in the Monolithic shadow of 2001!!