What a contrast this is to 2001! It's a little bit hard for me to put into words how I feel about it. On the one hand, the ending is incredibly kludgy and saccharine in a way that only an 80's movie that's like directly about the cold war can be, but the (usually) methodical mission-doing builds a really compelling mystery that kept me engaged until the end. The continuing Star Child plot I could kind of take or leave - obviously the entire movie is about as unsubtle as possible - but the back half of the movie would miss a lot if it weren't for the literal specter of David Bowman.
One of the things that really stood out to me is how natural the crew of the Leonov felt together. I think it was a really nice touch to have most of them lean aalllll the way back in their seats at the big table while they discussed what was going on and to have the small group that went over to the discovery after HAL had been warmed up kinda stand around and lean on things. Not only a welcome reminder that they were on a physical set with objects around them to interact with, but that they're a team who have been in this environment for months and months and have grown very comfortable with their surroundings. Speaking of which, I'm in love with the Leonov. What a delightfully ugly brick of a vessel. The switches and screens on every surface as well! And most of them were labeled, too!
Anyways, it was obviously never going to live up to 2001, but I don't think I could come up with a better plot for a sequel. I'll probably come back to it reasonably often -making sure to skip the cliche ending text lol