This film feels like a more conventional offering when put next to what came before. Considering that, I have to admit I got more enjoyment out of this than '2001: A Space Odyssey'—primarily because it aligns better with my personal preferences in movies compared to the artistic ambitions of that 1968 film. The original certainly achieves greater heights visually and sonically than this one from 1984, but I think …

Following the setback experienced by the Discovery One mission to Jupiter in 2001, Dr. Heywood Floyd (played by Roy Scheider) stepped down from his role as head of the National Council for Astronautics. A few years passed before the Soviets launched the Leonov and its crew toward Jupiter, accompanied by three American astronauts—including Floyd—to look into what happened to Discovery and the problems with HAL 9000, t…