2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

This has for years been one of my go-to movies when I feel like I could detach from earth for a few hours. Kind of a guilty pleasure, altho there's nothing to be a shamed of really. This movie - while a bit dated - is a solid and an atmospheric experience from the beginning to the end.

I liked 2001 also, I watch it maybe once every five years. 2010 I watch maybe every other year, so it does not hold any surprises, but I like the feel of it. While 2001 is somewhat heavy and artistic, 2010 is lighter and more accessible. Still, it's not a dumbed down Hollywood blockbuster, but rather quite an intelligent movie. In 2001 I still find different ways to interpret it, it holds time and renews itself, keeping a certain distance. 2010 is like your parents house, it never changes, you always feel like coming home.

I didn't see 2010 in the theaters, I was around 10 when this came out, but I saw it later in the 80s as a rental. Back then it was a spectacular sci-fi movie. Now it has a certain nostalgia factor to it. If I now saw it for the first time, I'm not sure if it would stick with me as well as it does now.

I've owned this on VHS, DVD and most recently on bluray. I have to admit I would rather probably watch it from VHS or DVD since bluray isn't very forgiving when it comes to fx shots. You can see a few times that the colors don't quite match. Despite of this I'd say the fx are pretty much on par with other sci-fi movies of that era. Most of them are flawless.

All in all this was the time Hyams was on a roll. Outland is great movie and the sets here clearly utilize his experience gained with Outland. Altho not quite as industrial, but the lighting is dim and very atmospheric. Hyams is one of those directors that I'm waiting to make one more great movie. But like many of his contemporaries, he has fallen into a pit of low budgets and box office failures. Most notorious probably being the Sound of Thunder that looked very much unfinished.

Acting is pretty good. Lithgow especially. Nothing spectacular, but solid show. The synth soundtrack is quite original.

Fmovies: It's definitely a division maker, a film that splits it's viewers down the middle. If you're a 2001 fan then you'll hate it - the sense of mystery and discovery is lost as events and motivations are layed-out and explained every step of the way. If you didn't like 2001, wondering aloud what the heck you just saw, I suggest you do see 2010 since you'll love the directness of the workmanlike treatment.

It's not a a put-down - it's just that the styles are so completely different that you have to consider the messenger as much as the message. 2001 was visionary in nearly every sense the word has -- it threw out the concept of the narrative (visual or otherwise) in an attempt to make you reach your own, personal conclusion of what happened. Rebirth? Ascension? Some Nietche-ish evolution to a "superman"? You tell me -- 2001 expects quite a lot from the viewer that 2010 would much rather even mention.

By comparison, 2010 is very much an old-fashioned Hollywood movie. It explains *everything*, step by step, and includes a Roy Scheider voice-over to help thread the small gaps in time between scenes together. The voice over is often beyond silly - it's in the lyric of a series of emails from Heywood to his wife who, it should be noted, is fearful for her husband's safety. Any spouse sitting through a reading of the atmosphere braking technique will probably not sleep for weeks. Any husband who could write that deserves a slap for scaring the beegeezus out of her.

2010 is not a strong film - frankly, it's quite derivative. It's visual sensibilities leech directly into "Alien" while inside the spacecraft (from the control buttons and displays on the Russian craft, to the lighting of the of EVA room as Baskin and Lithgow take their walk to Discovery, to the smoky "atmosphere" in the interiors when discussing the "troubles" at home). Outside, Hyams tries and is successful in the sense of scope and grandeur of space, and out pitiful size in relation to the course of the Universe. While he apes Kubrick, probably to establish a sense of continuity between the two films, he is at his best in the action scenes as the Leanov (sp?) enters Jupiter space. Either way, you watch this movie and get the feeling you've seen it all before.

To be fair, Scheider is very good in his role of Heywood Floyd, that is if you dismiss the style of the previous occupant of that role, William Sylvester, as only a Kubrick mannequin. Again, the camps are divided -- I believe I understand the tact Kubrick chose to take, the sense of human alienation and evolutionary boredom, and while 2010 puts "real people" in space and makes the voyage to the stars more human, this wasn't the goal of Kubrick. Kubrick wanted to show man at a spiritual, cultural and evolutionary dead-end, and so human reactions (like 2001's Bowman going after HAL) only escape from people as their vestiges of civilization fail them. Different approaches, different movies. So why compare them? Well, life's just not fair, now is it?

If you really don't need to compare the two, you can enjoy 2010. It's not a bad film, it just doesn't give much credit to the intelligence of the audience. That may not be a bad thing, so long as it's entertaining (insert Jim Carrey/Adam Sandler joke here) and 2010 can be entertaining at times. So long as you dismiss 2001 as a separate work of art.

If you have the time and the patience, see 2001 twice, g

When I saw 2001, I thought how brilliant a piece of film it turned out to be. Many people could not understand the meaning of the Monolith, but its meaning became clear in this sequal 2010. The acting is first rate throughout, with superb casting and Roy Scheider in one of his best films since Jaws.

The atmosphere generated by both films (more so, this one) is down to the excellent writing behind them. Arthur C.Clarke had a vision of a future and although he admits being 100 years out (talking today) there will be a time when computers like the HAL 9000 and expeditions into space take place just like in the films.

I only hope that sometime in the future, the two novels 2060 and 3001 will make it from paper to film.

I recommend this film to anyone, it is enjoyable for all the family.

2010: The Year We Make Contact fmovies. The first movie in the series, 2001, was a very artistic piece that had only moments of dialogue in its more than two hours of film. 2010 appears nearly apologetic in comparison, explicating somewhat excruciatingly every nuance of the plot through the main character's supposed messages back to planet earth. All of the blurry details of 2001 are made crystal clear in this fashion. It is a very wordy movie.

Nevertheless, 2010 has images that can captivate audiences just as well as they did in 1984. Today's movie goers will notice slight glitches in the special effects as well as a couple of discontinuities. The movie also dates itself because the plot includes a lot of tension between the Americans and Russians.

Because 2001 was such a great movie, 2010 tends to pale in comparison. However, it is still a very good science fiction movie and it is worth viewing (but probably not buying).

Of course it comes nowhere close to the brilliance of "2001: A Space Odyssey", but I don't think that ever was the makers intension. I believe that "2010" was made to tie up the loose ends and answer some of the questions that "2001: A Space Odyssey" left.

While "2001: A Space Odyssey" was more a visual movie, "2010" actually has many dialog but that doesn't mean that the movie isn't visually spectacular. The sets look beautiful and the special effects also have improved a lot.

The story is easier to follow and therefor the movie is more better to watch for a wider range of people then "2001: A space Odyssey" was. And I even think that this movie is pleasant to watch even if you haven't seen "2001: A Space Odyssey". luckily HAL is still scary even though his role is smaller in this one. And the space walk is actually still one of my favorite moments in cinema history!

The performances by the actors are good, and the tension and relation between the Americans and Russians is done very well.

Although not as brilliant, easier to watch as "2001: A Space Odyssey"

8/10

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The reactions to this film sum up a problem of perception that many film buffs seem to have. To such people, Kubrick was a genius. Kubrick made 2001. 2001 is a *Kubrick* story. Therefore 2010 is by definition a presumptuous attempt to explain what Kubrick deliberately left unsaid. etc. etc.

Sorry, 2001 is an *Arthur C Clarke* story. He wrote a sequel to his own story, called it "2010" and *he* explained what Kubrick left unsaid. I'd say he had a right. Then someone buys the film rights and produces a fine movie from it.

And it *is* a fine movie. Intelligence far in excess of the usual Hollywood SciFi garbage (Independence Day or Starship Troopers anyone?).

The scenes with Keir Dullea were far more chilling than anything in the original.

Arteur theory is still alive and well, I see.