Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 2010: The Year We Make Contact

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Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 01-08-2011, 02:32 AM:

2010: The Year We Make Contact

***1/2

Bring on 2061

Fresh on the heals of watching 2001 in theatre, I recently watched 2010. Pretty damn good part II. Peter Hyams does a good job of tension and wonder. What I liked was that the film was not the same style as 2001, its hard to compare 2001/2010 as they were made about 16 years apart. Although the central characters and theme are there, the overall sytle is different. This difference also leads to the faults of the movie.

I also liked how HAL came back into the picture and became a central part of the conclusion. His understanding of why they must leave was interesting.

The special effects are pretty decent for the era and the sound was good as the picture received 5 Oscar Nominations. It actually had more nominations that 2001 without winning any.

You can clearly tell there is a "Hollywood" influence to the second part. Part two was filmed in the USA and used real locations. The level of detail was not the same as 2001.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of 2010 is the ending. While 2001 left a lot open to interpretation, 2010 spells everything out for you with the voice over by Roy Scheider. "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE" would of been enough for the audience, instead we find out that the President of the USA/Premiere of the USSR looked out their windows and then there was peace, blah, blah, blah. There should of been a sense of wonder when the final monolith presents itself.

Also, the main theme seemed horrible tacked on at the end. While it was fitting for the intro, the ending could of used some new, original music.

These flaws do not make the movie bad, they just point to how Hollywood doesn't have the trust in audiences and the flaws also seperate 2010 from 2001.

I am not sure how faithful 2010 is to the book, but 2001 was not exactly word-for-word...I am ready for Odyssey Three. Bring on 2061.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-08-2011, 01:59 PM:

My main thought throughout this movie was that Roy Scheider really needed to stay inside more. I'm surprised he didn't die of melanoma. I mean, god damn!

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 01-10-2011, 10:22 AM:

The visual effects still hold up, and they also looked great in 70mm release prints. I believe they were done in 65mm format, so even after optical compositing they looked much better than the non-effects stuff (anamorphic shot rather wide open, quite grainy).

The mag sound mix was great; 2010, TRON and ALTERED STATES were the modern 70mm releases that impressed me most at that time.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-10-2011, 11:57 AM:

The visual effects in 2010 were excellent. I love the shot where the shrinking Jupiter disappears into blackness behind the Discovery and then explodes. Unfortunately "garbage mattes" are clearly visible in some of the effects shots (like space ships moving across a star-filled background).

Star Wars had the same problem of visible garbage mattes which is one of a number of reasons why George Lucas chose to digitally re-create many of the shots.

I'm not sure what could be done to reduce or get rid of the garbage mattes in 2010 completely. I think the current Blu-ray merely uses a HD telecine master created for HD cable/satellite broadcast. The movie may not be enough of a high profile catalog title to justify a new precise film scan and digital intermediate treatment. The DI tools might be able to get rid of those garbage mattes. But I don't see WB spending the money to make that happen, especially with the current Blu-ray being available at or below $10 in some stores.

As for the movie, it was good but not great. It's a very conventional Hollywood movie. 2001 wasn't very conventional at all.

Although the visuals in 2010 were great, the live action cinematography wasn't so good. Peter Hyams insisted on being both director and DP for many of his movies. So many of his shows are so washed out and murky it's just unbelievable.