(1984)
2
Nick Sambides, Jr.
If director Peter Hyams deliberately set out to destroy all the mystery and magic of 2001: A Space Odyssey, he couldn't have done a much better job of it than he did here. It's not so much that the Arthur C. Clarke novel that inspired the film is bad, although the adaptation too sorely misses the hand of 2001 collaborator Stanley Kubrick. Nor is it the actors, who are at least adequate, or the set design or special effects, which are exceptional. It's the way that Hyams' voice-over narration offers dumbed-down explanations of everything before it happens, giving the film an A-B-C narrative progression that undercuts what little suspense and wonder the story generates. The film also dotes on the Cold War tensions that Kubrick briefly dealt with in the original, giving 2010 a dated feel. About the only time the film comes alive is when original 2001 star Keir Dullea appears as a ghostly apparition with a message from the mysterious monolith and the superior beings behind it all. Marvelously youthful and energetic -- he looks as if he just came off the 2001 set -- Dullea's reprisal of his role, and his dialogue with HAL (Douglas Rain), constitute Hyams' cleanest, neatest homage to the wunderkind that was Kubrick. All in all, 2010 shows why the work of geniuses is best left alone.
2010 on AllMovie
2010 (1984)
