On DVD: 2010 - The Year We Make Contact

I was seriously debating on this one. After the disgust from watching 2001, I was inclined to skip 2010 on principle. I checked it out on IMDB and saw that the reviews were warm, and that people complained it wasn't nearly as pretentiously wonderful as 2001. Kubrick wasn't involved. Sold. I rented it.

It starts off WITHOUT five minutes of pomp and circumstance and music. It pretty much gets right down to business LIKE A REAL MOVIE. The actors were likeable as were their characters. There was ***shudders*** an actual story. It was a pretty good one at that. There were all sorts of dynamics in the movie that made it exciting. The work with the Russians, keeping in mind the time this movie was filmed, was a great twist. The Cold War was in full gear in our time, 1984, so they expected it to be at it's peak by 2010. And that was setting the pace in the whole film.

This movie answered all the questions left over from 2001. Sort of. Dave Bowman shows up again, but I don't understand why he was the chosen liaison of the aliens. BTW, you still don't get to see the aliens, but at least they explain what their intentions are by the end of the movie.

The entire HAL malfunction from the first movie is explained. It turns out it had NOTHING to do with the effects from the monolith.

All in all I'd call this a far better and entertaining movie than 2001. At least this is watchable by those who aren't pseudo-intellectuals. A genuine sci-fi film.

More info on IMDB:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0086837/