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Summary: A Giant Achievment in Film History !!
Review: Well, not just the greatest Sci-Fi film of all time, but one of the five greastest films (of any genre) of all time ! Kubrick's vision in this film is unparalleled. Only he could have invisioned a film of such depth and magnitude. A film that spans over four million years. From the "Dawn of Man" to four million years later with the most famous single cut in film history. One moment we are terrified of HAL, then we can't help but have sympathy for him. This amazing journey then takes a strange but brilliant turn to the "Cosmic Bedroom" to man evolving to a higher form. A cornerstone film that is required viewing (multiple times)for anyone of loves "film".
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Summary: 2001: a space odyssey
Review: Anyone who states that this film is awful is basically proclaiming that they're a moron. (Yes you are, or you wouldn't be saying nasty things about this masterpiece. Go back to your copies of Star Wars!) This film is a story about mankinds evolution, purpose, grand destiny, and greatest adventure. It requires the viewer to be 'Ready' for the experience, and is a film where reading the book is sort of recommended for total clarity as the film makes the viewer work for the answers and doesn't just give you all the x-position.(Whence why some people hate this film. Sorry your pathetic brains require everything given to you!) It's technical excution is breath taking, when you consider the age it was made. It is an art, music, and visual feast with some seriously comtemplative moments. No-one ever 'gets' the film first time round so don't worry if your not quite sure what's going on. I suggest reading the book, and then watching the film again after that. The book is amazingly easy to read and thoroughly enthralling, and I'm not a huge book reader. Brilliant acting, exquiste sets, and unmatched photgraphic realism. My only gripe with this superb edition of the DVD is the lack of a commentary or making of. I'd hoped that there would be more on it than just the film, but on the other hand, it is superbly remastered with a striking picture clarity and beautiful sound design. (P.S. I hated when I was younger this film because I didn't get it, later when I was 19 I gave it another try, and I'm now quite glad I did. And very proud to say that I 'Get" it now!)
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Summary: you are truly STUPID if you did not like this movie
Review: I noticed when reading the one star reviews that there was a trend; all of the people who did not like the movie thought that it was boring and pointless. They would much rather sit down and watch the Matrix rather than 2001. THAT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE SHALLOW. They do not understand any thing the movie is trying to say, nor are able to appreciate poetic sub-concious feel of the movie. If you're shallow, and/or stupid, I would reccomend not watching the 2001: A Space Oddyssey, you do not have the intellectual capacity to handle it.
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Summary: Age does not decide who likes this movie...
Review: This is undoubtebly one of the best movies ever made. It is different, it is mind-blowing. After viewing, I felt myself yearning for it to be true. Almost every movie on the market is dominated by dailogue, maybe that is why this movie is such a breath of fresh air from mindless action movies and even good dramas.
It is rare for movies to make you wonder, think, or be changed as much as this movie does. The unpatient will not like this movie, which, I admit, is mostly teens. I'm probably the only one who likes the movie in my school. The movie at times moves almost painfully slow, which is the contrary to almost every other movie, that is why it is so great.
Though the best thing about this movie is the wonder. It evokes the mind into things it has never thought before, which I think, is the best thing a movie can do. To make one think. The monolith can mean anything the viewer wants it to, which gives an unbelievable sense of freedom that no others offer. And the enlightening image of the starchild at the climax is one of the most mind-blowing scnenes in cinema history.
Other than the recognized components of this movie, there are also others that stick out. The special effects and cinematography are incredibly artistic, the evoke emotion. The music is genious and fits perfectly into the movie, making it perfect.
I'm young and fascinated by this movie.
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Summary: Why, Why, Why!
Review: 2001 is a landmark film and way ahead of its time. You would think that such a film would be presented better on DVD. Lesser films have Documentarys, commentaries, interviews, and other bonus content. Not this DVD version. It would have been nice to have an interview of Arthur C. Clarke, or an interview of some of the Apollo Astronauts (who were "Wowed" by 2001 just prior to their own space adventures). The final insult is the cardboard snap case this DVD comes in. WB does not give a damm about the consumer.
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Summary: A Landmark in Cinema History
Review: Probably director Stanley Kubrick's most celebrated work, 2001:A Space Odyssey is a landmark in cinema history. It has very little dialogue, instead telling its story through images and music. It is slowly paced and meditative - we are given lovingly detailed tours around space craft (which still to this day look authentic. The special effects in this movie really do stand up.) set to classical music. What dialogue there is, is mostly deliberately mundane. Space travel for these people is nothing out of the ordinary. It's just like you or I going to the office. However, the story 2001: A Space Odyssey tells is a vast, ambitious one: nothing short of the entire history and future of humankind as we know it. It begins at "The Dawn of Man", when half-ape-half-human creates, aided by a mysterious black monolith, discover tool-making and murder at the same instant. Then it cuts to the near future - so near-future that some of the crew members on the space shuttles have very 1968 haircuts! - when humankind is beginning to conquer space. And the same black monolith shows up buried on the moon. It's a powerful, incredible film piece of pure cinema that every film fan should see. I know some people who find it too slow - who cannot immerse themselves in the beauty of the images on display - and who, hard as they try cannot get to the end, which means they miss out on plausibly the greatest (and weirdest) ending to any movie ever made. If you want a thoughtful, intelligent, beautiful, sci-fi film that is genuinely important and thoroughly different from mainstream, narrative cinema of today, a film you can think about, discuss, debate, a film that will inspire you, 2001 is for you. DVD extras are somewhat limited but this rather befits a film such as this, which speaks for itself.
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Summary: A short poem....
Review: Through struggling dream of intuition
Man has seeked to encompass the final frontier
But Kubrick doesn't allow simplistic terms
He lets the our minds attain leverage to steer
What lies beyond our confining realm
Perhaps little will abide to care
Then it would be a waste of imagination
Look another monolith over there!
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Summary: This is what and Science Fiction should be on Film.
Review: You could watch 2001; A Space Odyssey in so many different ways and whatever you think of the movie will end up being very diffrent each time you see the movie, it can be interepted so many different ways.
I now say in no uncertain terms that this movie must certainly influced George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in doing the kinds of movies they do, and is still so superior to most other films in the genre that have been done before or since.
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Summary: The Audacity is Transcended by the Technique
Review: It is more than possible to view this film now as a cheeky attempt by Kubrick to tell us all what the meaning of life is. For one person to come out and say he knows it all is a positively clinical case of insanity. There is no doubt that Kubrick's intention was just that - however these intentions are entirely overwhelmed by the cinema that he used to convey "his" message. You end up not giving a damn about what the man set out to say and instead just lush about in all his film's technical and photographic wonders. It is a film of three parts. The first is about Neanderthal man's coming of age. This is represented by warring ape clans that one day find a dark black Monolith standing in the sand dunes. They touch the monolith with their NAKED hands. The Monolith evolves the apes who proceed to start to use bones as weapons to win their war. The end of this sequence involves the #1 classic "match cut" of all time as a bone in the air suddenly becomes a space station. Here we learn about a conspiracy on the moon where the Monolith has been uncovered. Man touches the Monolith with their GLOVED hand and somehow evolves yet again which is presented in the next sequence by a computer called HAL with Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). A group men of all but two who are in hibernation then travel with HAL to the planet Jupiter on a "mission". There they discover the Monolith again. HAL goes crazy and tries to kill everybody. This is to show that HAL is evolving. The final scene is a confrontation where man touches the monolith with his MIND. 2001 was made in 1968 before man had even touched on outer space and just shows how much vision Kubrick and Clarke had. The special effects still stand the cut today. It is all visually stunning and every cinematic process has been treated with absolute perfection. The final scene is a trip designed specifically for the acid movement of the 60s. Hippies reportedly launched themselves at the giant canvas screens and danced around before it. This is one of all time classic science fiction films and a great piece of daring metaphysical thought. It encapsulates everything that art and cinema stands for and also helped promote science and the theory of evolution to a deeply religious and changing world. The importance and impact of motion picture films is all right here in this stunning widescreen DVD presentation. It is an absolute must for any collection.
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Summary: It makes sense now
Review: Now that I thought about it, this movie makes perfect sense. It is a poetic and visual presentation of human evolution. It shows how we have evolved from the original apes at the beginning, who gathered food and water, but then their watering hole is overun by rivaling apes. Then the monolith appears (the monolith signifies any significant turn in human achievment and evolution), and, as is bestowing knowledge upon it's onlookers, the apes find out how to use bones as tools and weapons to regain their water, basically survivor of the fittest. The monolith appears a few time over the next two hours and forty minutes, each marking an important event in evolution, right until the point that Bowman is transformed into the Star Child.
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