To make a follow up to 2001-ASO was always going to be a massive risk, both critically & financially. Yet somehow director Peter Hyams doesn't embarrass himself with this good effort.

Set several years after the mysterious loss of contact with the Discovery and the last surviving astronaut, Dave Bowman, the film concerns itself with a joint soviet/Nasa mission to discover what actually happened, and why HAL appeared to malfunction. And whilst the soviet built ship is heading towards Saturn to intercept the abandoned Discovery, the USSR and US governments are bringing the world perilously close to World War 3.

This film is a lot more straightforward than Kubricks. It also ties up a few of the loose ends as well. It features some early CGI shots (of Jupiter) and the eagle eyed of you will spot a pre-stardom Helen Mirren as a Russian astronaut (speaking authentic Russian by the way). However the nominal star of the film, Roy Scheider, acquits himself well enough, playing the designer of the Discovery (who was played by a different actor in Kubricks film). Also along for the ride is Dr Chandra, a slightly eccentric computer engineeer who is responsible for the design of HAL and who is desperate to find out what went wrong.

Ideally i'd have liked to have given this film three and a half stars but that option isn't available. However this is a solid enough, if by-the-numbers film. Of course it will never be able to compete with the impact of Kubricks film but it is certainly no disaster. It has dated a little bit as well (check out Scheiders 1984 lap top computer...one of the very first ever made) and the cold war sub-plot has inevitably dated it. Kubrick had nearly all his original sets and models destroyed after filming 2001, so the film makers had to rebuild the sets of the Discovery...and they have done a splendid job of reconstructing the originals.

This film will always be viewed as inferior to Kubricks masterpiece but it is still a worthwhile watch, especially considering the price. It is a decent enough transfer so picture and sound quality are good but the lack of extras is a little disappointing though.