2010: A Space Epilogue

The removal of the narration and changes to the music and sound design was very effective in creating a version of 2010 that is much more in keeping with 2001. I've always liked this film and it made me enjoy 2001 more. But this version is my go-to 2010 from now on. It's great.

I'm one of those "WORSHIP 2001" people.

I saw it when I was 7 years old and now lost count.

Then 2010 came along; it's a decent movie, but I just want to like it more than I do or can. Now I can like it a lot more than I did.

This is a great piece of work and truly brings in that Kubrick sense of isolation, wonder and dread. What it cannot do, is deal with inherent issues, such as some of the awful compositing, so no dedustions on that front.

The switch to classical music, silent space walks (bar the breathing track) and stripped back narrative is perfectly executed. The captions area great (in the correct fonts), and overall a much more Kurick/Clarke ride. Interestingly, the stand out moment for me was the opening and the huge attention to detail in the captioning and perfectly timed fade out which told me, THIS IS SPECIAL.

I may disagree with some of the music pieces chosen, but by enlarge, they are spot on so no deductions there either.

I can't say too much more coz it will spoil the journey, so I'll leave it there only to say, THIS IS MY GO TO VERSION and its going on a disc, in a case next to 2001. 2010 Theatrical will be behind them, out of sight!!!!!

BRAVO!

Full disclosure... I love 2010! Yeah, I am that guy. lol While I fully acknowledge Kubrick was a genius filmmaker, I do find his 2001 to be a very cold, detached, clinical experience. It is masterpiece of filmmaking that, for me, is filled with wonderous visuals and undeveloped boring characters. I think that is why I prefer 2010; instead of trying to compete with the original classic, it shifts story emphasis to characters rather than metaphysics.

With that out of the way, I got to say this was a truly fascinating watch.
SubjectZero has KUBRICKED the frack out of 2010!

Some exceptional audio throughout this edit. I thoroughly enjoyed all the new music choices. The pacing, chapter breaks and minimalism all harken nicely to the original. The 'no sound in space' works very well. Though the spacewalk breathing sound fx didn't quite work for me, as it never changes when the characters are in distress.

The new minimalism tone works really well. So well, that the "hotdog" and "you think I was wrong" scenes feel out of place in this new narrative. Also, I found the removal of the Cold War dialogue in the scene between Heywood and Moisevitch to be a bit awkward. And while I loved the additional footage from other films like Ad Astra, narratively it works fantastically, I thought it could have been degraded more to match the original film; as is, it really pops out with how clean, bright and CGI it is.

While I still prefer the original movie, this was an amazing alternate viewing experience.
SubjectZero successfully met all his set out goals.
Well worth the watch! Thank you so much for sharing with us.

I thought this was a tremendously successful edit! It absolutely redeemed this film. The original is, in my opinion, the greatest film ever made. This opinion means that I’ve always felt pretty negatively about this sequel. Subjectzero’s edit has really caused me to reevaluate this film.
The music substitution was perfect. Ditching the sax and synth heavy original score alone drug this into the same universe with its distinguished older sibling. I have mixed feelings about the musical prelude over the black screen, simply because I feel it sets the film up to be something it is not, namely an artistic continuation of A Space Odyssey. However, I can see the reason behind including it. It allows the viewer who has seen and enjoyed the original version of this film to adjust their expectations.
I really enjoyed the additional footage pulled in from Ad Astra, Interstellar, and Jupiter Ascending. I agree it would be perfect if the insert shots could be graded (or degraded) to match the footage from the original. However, that’s a very small quibble.
My biggest criticism with this edit is that it cuts too much from the final scene between Hal and Dr. Chandra. I felt like there was meaningful character growth from Chandra that was displayed when he responded to Hal’s “will I dream” question with an honest, “I don’t know”. This perfectly bookends Chandra’s conversation with Sal at the beginning of the film, in which he tells her with certainty that she will dream as “all intelligent creatures dream”. I just felt like the dialogue in this scene was trimmed a bit too harshly. We need the back and forth between Hal and Chandra to truly feel the emotional weight of Hal’s acceptance of his fate. And to make the reactions of Floyd and the rest of the crew to Hal’s “I understand” feel more earned.

I really can't recommend this edit highly enough. This will definitely replace "2010: The Year We Make Contact" as the sequel that comes much, much closer to being the one that should have followed A Space Odyssey.

I was very intrigued by this edit. Whilst I agree with subjectzero in that 2010 is not in the same league as Kubrick's 2001, I've always enjoyed it as a solid follow up. There's no doubt that with Peter Hyams at the helm, it's a more conventional movie. Hyams is a more than competent director, having made such fare as Outland, Capricorn One, not to mention the extremely entertaining Van Damme vehicles, Timecop and Sudden Death. Of course, he's no Kubrick though, and there's no doubt that for as well made as 2010 is, it lacks the majesty and style of its ground breaking predecessor and in some ways gets bogged down by trying to over explain everything, particularly with Roy Scheider's voice over. So, the prospect of an edit which attempts to strip some of this down and make it more like 2001 in feel, certainly spiked my interest.

On the whole, subjectzero succeeds in the attempts to bring this more in line with 2001. There are large amounts of dialogue removed, particularly during some of the space walk scenes, and thankfully all of Scheider's voice over is gone. To be honest, I didn't miss any of these scenes, so kudos to the work done on this. The only criticism I would make, is that during some space walk scenes where some of the crew are in trouble, or at least in precarious positions, their breathing remains the same (i.e. very calm and controlled), which does lessen the impact and excitement somewhat. It's not a deal breaker, but I feel more work could have been done on this in terms of audio editing.

The "no sound in space" idea is on the whole well executed, and the additional/alternate music cues work nicely and certainly hark back to Kubrick's style from 2001. However, I do question the execution of tiny sections of the choral music from 2001 which literally pop up for what can be 2 or 3 seconds and will then just cut out. To me this feels jarring and is the sole reason why I have downmarked the audio editing. It happens on 5 occasions and it did impact the overall enjoyment of the edit for me. Some may say I'm being fussy, and perhaps I am, but it's a real shame as otherwise all the musical choices and audio editing work well. There's nothing wrong with the choral music being used, it's just the execution unfortunately.

Otherwise, I fully enjoyed this edit. The extra scenes used from other sci-fi movies such as Interstellar, AD Astra etc, are expertly implemented, and considering the very small file size of the MP4 the picture quality looks impressive. Personally I would have prefered a larger file size so that it could have rivalled the blu-ray quality of the film, but I was nevertheless impressed.

Naturally with the film being cut down to just over 90 minutes, it does feel a little on the slim side for such a space epic, but full kudos to subjectzero for managing to make a streamlined version that feels more in the world of 2001 and doesn't feel the need to over explain everything to the viewer. Recommended.