This was the sequel that the world had been screaming for over 16 years!
Starring Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban Keir Dullea, and The Monolith. Written, produced and directed by Peter Hyams, based on a novel by Arthur. C. Clarke. Special effects by Richard Edlund and designs by the late, great Syd Mead.
The plot! It's 2010 and something is happening to the abandoned Discovery spaceship left drifting in orbit around Uranus since 2001, when onboard computer Hal 900 had the mother of all, 'have you tried turning it off and on again?' meltdowns and killed everybody. Everyone that is save for astronaut Dave Bowman who set off on a journey through a stargate and disappeared. Sorry, it's actually Jupiter, but that's not as funny as Uranus.
Anyway.
Swapping sharks for dolphins, Roy Scheider's Dr. Floyd, leaves his aquatic chums behind and sets off to outer space with brah-buddies, Lithgow (big ol' lug) and Balaban (daddy of Hal 900) to find out what went wrong. Meanwhile, Keir Dullea's Dave Bowman comes back to Earth to prick-tease us all by repeatedly telling everyone he meets that 'Something wonderful is coming.' Which, coincidently is the exact same thing I said to my wife on our wedding night.
Anyway, our plucky heroes, aka: The Dirty Quarter Dozen hitch a ride onboard the Russian spaceship Leonov with Russian hardass scientist and captain Tanya Kirbuk (Helen Mirren) and set off to Uranus, cos it's still funny, or Europa where something wonderful is happening.
And along the way, nothing is explained and the film reaches it's conclusion 116 minutes later.
Visually, this film looks great, the sets, the ships all designed by Syd Mead are glorious, and there's something very exciting about being back onboard the Discovery and catching up with Hal. But for all of it's build up and hints of something more, there's really not a lot going on beneath the bonnet and the ending suggesting 'something wonderful' just feels like a non-punchline at the end of a huge shaggy dog story.
However all that said, I still kind of like this, because I like slow-burn movies, especially science fiction ones, plus it has four fantastic actors, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, John Lithgow and Roy Schiender, although Mirren feels wasted. And it's always a joy to see Schiender in anything, he elevates every film he's in.
TRIVIA NOTE: Watch closely and you'll spot a cameo by both Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick.
8/10
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