2010 (1984)

	Also Known As: 2010, The Year we Make Contact
	Year of first release: 1984
	Director: Peter Hyams (Timecop, End of Days)
	Actors: Roy Scheider (Jaws), John Lithgow (Obsession, Blow Out), Helen Mirren (R.E.D.)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 20.05.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Dr Floyd (Scheider), who was head of the administration that send the Discovery ship to Jupiter in 2001, is contacted nine years later by a Russian colleague about anomalies in the orbit of the abandoned ship, and about a mission to go explore it.
Review: From that movie I remembered only the last images, maybe because I caught the end one day on TV. After watching 2001, A Space Odyssey and reading the novel afterwards, I decided to proceed the same way with this sequel directed 16 years later. As I had read, 2010 is very different from 2001 and fortunately doesn't try to copy it predecessor. For example it uses classical music only in the opening and closing scenes to mark the belonging to the same series, but the rest of the movie is scored by a discreet electronic (synthesizer) theme. Also I could appreciate the slow pace and the mystery but in smaller proportions than in the Kubrick thought-provoking Masterpiece. In fact 2010 is more like a regular movie, i.e. there are many more dialogs than in 2001 and the story is easier to follow, not so much is left for interpretation by the audience. I guess it is thus closer to the novel, but paradoxically could contain major differences as the movie was shot long after the novel was released, while for 2001 both were cross-fertilizing in parallel. The story in 2010 is a nice continuation of the one of 2001 (more the novel actually) including the reflections on Artificial Intelligence, war, aliens and the place of Man in the Universe. Peter Hyams with the multiple hat of screenplay writer, director, cinematographer and producer didn't pay the same meticulous attention to the scientific accuracy as Kubrick did. You notice that when most of the scenes in space have gravity or a poorly simulated absence thereof. The only improved special effects I have noticed compared to the 16-years older original are the views of Jupiter, the rest is just good-looking but not exceptional for the time (about six years after Star Wars and Alien). A honest movie in the end, more of a Adventure than pure realistic Science-Fiction. Simpler but not disappointing with respect to its predecessor. And I always like to see Roy Scheider since his role in the traumatizing Jaws.
Rating: 7 /10