woah you guys post damn fast... just posted here and BANG six more replies dammit.
2010 is the sequel to 2001: A space odyssey.
It answers some of the questions... about what that Bowman does after becoming a starchild, a tool for those aliens. Basically ===spoiler alert=== highlight to view
Bowman checks out the planet earth, the aliens discover primitive life on europa, use the monolith like object on Jupiter to convert Jupiter into a planet. There is this cheesy message in the end from the aliens about "using the rest of the worlds of Lucifer (the renamed Jupiter, the other sun in the now bi-solar system) in peace", which was not there at all in the book. Chandra is a disappointment because he is not Lankan or even Indain! Bad bad movie for those who have read the book, and bad bad movie anyway.
===spoiler end====
@man from earth, brilliant film cinematically, in terms of how well the story is narrated, but does not really stand out. Has some flair, but the content is not gripping enough.