2010: A Space Odyssey
My God, It's Filled With Pizzas
I liked 2010 ... but just. The effort to make 2001: A Space Odyssey saga into a more "user friendly" kind of flick was something of an insult to Kubrick's invention. 2001: A Space Odyssey was an evolution in film making -- one of the very few films captured in 70 millimeter. The mere look of the film on a wide screen theater was astounding.
While Kubrick either intentionally or unintentionally set out to make a lasting work of art, the creators of 2010 had more base motivations -- capitalize on an internationally recognized masterpiece, meet deadlines on a smaller budget (for the period), and avoid the negativity of Kubrick's film by remaining within the confines of a plot that was entirely comprehensible to the average Joe.
While the production cannot help but be compared to its predecessor, it is probably better for any new viewers to judge it on its own merits or lack thereof. For me, there is no grandeur here, no real artistry or magnetic energy, but on its own toned-down level, the movie is not without some appeal.
Much of the tension in the film revolves around a possible conflict between the US and the USSR, so that alone automatically dates the story and comes across as a plot distraction from the more beguiling questions surrounding HAL, Dave, and the monolith.
Arthur C. Clarke went on to write a couple of other novels extending the 2001 story line, but none were brought to film -- probably because of 2010 -- although after having read the third installment in Clarke's series, I did not find much of interest. He was, of course, capitalizing on his one major success, but diverged so radically from the entry point -- the short story "The Sentinel" that the later efforts suffered tremendously from a lack of continuity. While 2001: A Space Odyssey will always remain one of the top ten motion pictures ever created, 2010 has already sunk into obscurity.