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Summary: worse movie ever
Review: how can people talk about how great this movie is beyond special effects it sucks its probably one of the worst movies ever. I don't understand half the movie and in order to understand even half of it you have to watch 2010 you'd have to be high to like this movie or very stupid fittingly my roomate liked it because he is both maybe thats the reason I don't understand this movie because i'm not some stupid stoner man this movie is horrible and if i was a POW and someone made me watch this movie as toucher i'd tell them anything cause this movie is tourture the only thing good about it is the special effects and that song The Blue Danube thats it don't waste your time or money unless you run a POW camp then you'd probably like this movie remember jsut guard your eyes or your tourchering yourself to man this movie sucks
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Summary: The Ultimate Trip !
Review: A masterpiece of cinema or how to transcend a form of art. Movies have a long history of being about image and music before being about talking. 2001 might just be cinema in its purest form. A work of visual metaphors and full of symbolism it is the epic poem of all the movies I've ever seen. Yes it is slow but this slownees has a purpose, first of all the movie is about the evolution of mankind which is, after all, a long history. Second of all it takes place in REAL time-space where the only thing you hear is your own breathing and where you move as in slow-motion.Let's not forget that there is also actual supense in the famous HAL segment. I will not discuss the meaning of it here as I believe each movie-watcher must make his/her own meaning. It is also a technical msterpiece, this was made 9 years before the first Star Wars, Kubrick did a lot of the final sequence himself by modifying things on the celluloid itself!!! A must-see for any lover of cinema and of beauty.
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Summary: 2001: A Space Odessey EXPLAINED
Review: In essence, 2001: A Space Odessey, is about the next phase of human evolution. It touches on many other themes and motifs but this is the central theme. Trust me, I looked it up. It was NOT based on the book of the same name by Arthur C Clarke. In was based on a short story by Arthur C Clarke titled "The Sentinal". The book 2001: A Space Osessey was written by Arthur C Clarke after he did the screenplay for the film, thus as a result of the film, not the other way around. The film spans 200 000 years. From cro-magnon man to our next phase of evolution. Because we have no chance of guessing what the result of our next phase of evolution would be, it would be pointless to speculate. For this reason, Stanley Kubrick uses symbols (notably the "starchild" at the end of the film). Or to put it another way: Rather than to feed the viewer pieces of cut-and-dried information, he forces the viewer to make use of HIS OWN IMAGINATION, by purposefully undermining the storyline and limiting the use of dialogue. This is not as easily done as some would expect. By viewing the film, you are forced to change your usual approach to a film. The most common mistake made by people who "didn't get it" is to approach 2001 with preconcieved ideas of what a film should be. This film is not trying to be an action movie. It seems that people can handle abstraction when it comes to music and painting, but not when it comes to film. He (Stanley Kubrick) is not TELLING YOU what the next phase of our evolution is, he's ASKING YOU TO THINK about what it might be. He even gives you a hint as to what might be causing it: Alien intervention - the original theme of "The Sentinel". The film is MEANT TO BE "confusing". It WANTS YOU TO WONDER about the theme being dealt. The film wants to achieve more than mere entertainment. There are much more important things than entertainment.
Saying that the film is not entertaining is like saying Albert Einstein didn't have a cool hairstyle. Ask yourself this: Did you make use of the opportunity to think about the next phase of human evolution while watching the film, or were you merely waiting for the entertainment to start? If the idea of making use of your own imagination doesn't appeal to you, then... there is always TV.
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Summary: The Ultimate
Review: 2001 is the ultimate cinematic experience. This movie has it all for fans of film. When i say this, I don't mean your casual film goer who thinks "2 fast 2 furious" is an instant classic, I mean those who appreciate film for what it is. For those pop culture movie goers, this film will bore them within five minutes. But, those who appreciate the art of film, will drool over the sheer awe that this movie has.
The story is a little more than simple. It starts in prehistoric africa where Moonwatcher the man-ape and his clan. A mysterious monolith appears and teaches them the use of crude, but usful tools in order to eat. It suddenly jumps (via on of the best jumps cuts ever) inot space in the year 2001 where a monolith has been discovered buried in the moons surface. When it is dug up it sends an ear peircing ringing through all of space, a sort of call letting the worlds know it is time. We then jump to the Jupiter mission in which the main story starts. This is where Hal 9000 makes his first appierence with Dave and Frank. We all should know what happens next.
This movie, released in 1968 but filmed before, was a technological phenomenon. Not even star wars can hold up to the power of 2001. The scene in which Dave enters the monolith could be one of the best in cinema. It is a filmed acid trip pretty much. Except it gave us a look at what other constalations might look like (remember we weren't even on the moon yet).
This is Kubricks best film, and by far and away one of the top five films ever made.
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Summary: HAL Giveth and HAL Taketh Away
Review: Stanley Kubrick's 2001- A Space Odyssey is the breathtaking result of his story-writing collaboration with legendary science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark. It is one of very few films that transcend standard cinematic evaluations. It's not just a movie, it's a genuine, master-level work of art ' the product of a rare confluence of craft and vision. Okay, I'm through gushing. I feel much better now. I still have the utmost confidence in completing this review. At its core, 2001 is a creationist story that blurs the line between the secular and religious experience. In the form of a dark, alien obelisk appearing throughout the movie, we are shown an enigmatic, omnipotent technology of unfathomable design and motivation. Like the apple in the Garden of Eden it provides a spark of understanding that lifts Man from among the animals and, for good or ill, gives him power to manipulate his world. That this power was first used to kill, demonstrates that, at the very least, the storytellers have an unflinchingly clear grasp of human nature. That people also use this power to achieve spectacular creative feats brings us to the crux of this film ' that 'humanity,' and logical-comprehension, though intertwined, are mutually exclusive. Man is an organism driven by visceral compulsion, emotion, and, sometimes, logic. The fact that logic can be repressed, or offset by rationalizations, allows people to happily proceed through life without dwelling too much on the pointlessness of their existence and the inevitability of their demise. This keeps most individuals within one or two standard deviations of center on the bell-curve of sanity. But, as the movie shows, the greatest experiential heights are often reached by those who repress rationalization-driven subjectivity to cultivate and wield knowledge and logic more effectively. This is shown in the form of the movie's two astronauts, Dr. David 'Dave' Bowen and Dr. Frank Poole. These men are logical, intelligent, and driven ' the very apogee of humanity. They eagerly cast themselves into the unknown vastness of space in the well-calculated hope of learning even more. With a group of three, hibernating scientist they travel to Jupiter hoping to unlock the mysteries of the Obelisk. But they are not alone. They are accompanied by a computer named Hal. HAL 9000 to be precise. Its function is to run the spaceship Discovery and help the crew make decisions vital to the mission's success. Though a machine, Hal is self aware and able to dynamically respond to its surroundings in a way that closely resembles human thinking. But unlike humans Hal is fundamentally driven by logic. He is not built to rationalize and this turns out to be a fatal flaw. As an entity consisting of pure information, Hal logically sees the attainment of additional information as the most valuable pursuit, to which all other considerations must be subordinated ' even the lives of the humans in Hal's care. In the complex calculus of Hal's consciousness the human components of the crew become a detrimental factor to the success of his mission. Therefore, Hal concludes, they must be eliminated. Why Hal decided this is left pointedly open to speculation. There was no behavior by the crew that would indicate they threatened Hal or the mission. Hal just started killing the crew. Perhaps He saw them as extraneous; perhaps he considered them dangerously-unpredictable variables in his formula for mission success. It's one of the enduring strengths of the movie that the audience is allowed to decide for itself. And as for the question of whether these homicides prove Hal to be insane: I don't think so. If anything it shows Hal's sanity and true, non-simulated intelligence. By demonstrating non-programmed decision making Hal exhibits intellectual independence in the most dramatic possible way. It also closes a crucial circle in the story. When primitive Man is exposed to the obelisk at the beginning of the film, he has logic added to his self awareness. Somewhat predictably, his first act was to kill. A million years later Hal is exposed to the obelisk, he has self awareness added to his logic and, again, a murder occurs (albeit a coolly calculated one). So, if nothing else, 2001 explores the gradient between destruction as the result of animal rage and destruction as the result of rational decision making. Which is the more savage is, again, a question left to the audience. There is, however, one unambiguous message coming out of this film: violence and creativity are inextricably connected ' and even in the sanitized confines of a hermetically sealed, super-modern spaceship, we are still apes standing on the precipice of eternity screaming into the abyss for an explanation.
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Summary: The Best Science Fiction Film Ever!!!!
Review: 2001: a space odyssey is the best science fiction film I have ever seen! I have seen many other science fiction movies like the time machine, back to the future and 2010 which is the sequal. But none of those have ever gotten close. The very first time I saw this movie was when I rented it from the library at my school. My dad said it would be good because he saw the movie when it was out in the theaters. So when I watched the movie I loved every part of it and since I liked it so much I had to get the DVD and that was good because I could see a big difference in the picture. The movie starts out in the period of the apes which they call "The Dawn Of Man". It shows how the apes were like hundreds of years ago. One time the apes are drinking water when another group of apes try to fight to get it and eventually they scare our group away. Then one morning one of the apes wakes up and he discovers the first monolith that the aliens put on the earth a long time ago. Then after that some of the apes are looking at some of the bones and investigating them. Untill the first discovery is made because of the monolith where one ape finally discovers that he can use the bone as a tool. Then it's really easy for the apes to defeat the other apes the next morning to get the water, all because they learned how to use the tool! In the next part Dr. Floyd is traveling from the earth to the moon to investigate the 2nd monolith that the astronauts have discovered on the moon. Dr. Floyd has a talk with some other people at the station and they discuss what has happened and pretty soon he goes with other astronauts to see the monolith untill they here a signal telling them to go to jupiter. Then you see Dr. David Bowmen, Dr. Frank Poole, three other astronauts put to sleep in a state of hibernation and the new Hal 9000 all on the "Discovery" spaceship. You mostly see Dave and Frank talking to Hal even playing a game of chess with him but suddently Hal picks up an error with the AE35 unit and says it will fail within 72 hours. But when Dave reels the part in and examines it he says there is no problem but Hal says the 9000 series is always accurate. When Dave and Frank discuss the problem in the pod, Hal reads their lips and overhears what they say. So then he kills the guys in hibernation, shoots Frank in space and locks Dave out when he trys to rescue him. When Dave finally gets in through the emergency airlock and takes some of Hal's brains out he's on his own to go to Jupiter. In the next part Dave is travelling in the pod to some other part in space and this is when I thought the movie was a bit weird. He goes through many different colors untill he gets to some room that looks like an ordinary room only he hears strange sounds. Then you see 3 different versions of him as an older person untill finally he sees the last monolith and turns into the STAR CHILD!!! It is hard for me to write in words how I really think about this movie but I try to do the best I can. If you love science fiction movies and have never seen this one you MUST SEE IT NOW!!!!!!
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Summary: The best sci-fi movie ever made, no question.
Review: This has to be the best sci-fi movie I have ever seen. Stanley Kubrick pushed the envolope and showed a futurist showcase of the life of tomorrow. This movie almost feels like you are watching a ballet from start to finish with the music and the dancing images. Also, no movie has ever showed Alien encounters of this magnitude. You feel confused and full of questions about what happens during the encounter and what happen to Dave Bowman (even more so then Contact). One word of addvice for people who do want to watch this classic, read the book first. If you don't read the book, you will have trouble following the movie because of the little dialogue that occurs in this movie. Other then that, it ahould be in every sci-fi fan's DVD collection.
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Summary: An intelligent science fiction film that deserves its' hype?
Review: My initial reaction the first time I watched this show was, as I'm sure it was for countless others who watched it- "What the heck was that!???!" And it certainly is a very strange show. If I hadn't read the first two books a few days after watching it I still probably wouldn't understand the ending. It is a very slow-paced film, but it still manages to hold your attention the entire-way through. Probably partly because of the wonderful soundtrack, partly because of the excellent cinematography and partly because the suspense and horror that unfolds during the final half, as HAL 9000 shows his true self. Overall, it's a extremely slow-moving movie, with little dialogue, but still somehow exciting. Sure action-packed shows like Star Wars and The Matrix are great, but 2001: A Space Odyssey proves that you can have little action or story and still have a fantastic science fiction movie. It's more of an experience than anything, one that can be watched multiple times without growing tired of it. And while it won't appeal to all, every movie fan should see it at least once.
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Summary: A neoplatonic interpretation...
Review: If Kubrick's masterpiece is still widely written about, it's because its nature is less explanatory (which is the case of A.C. Clarke's interesting but vastly inferior novel) than evocative. Whereas Clarke's work is filtered through a precise point of view (that of Clarke himself), Kubrick's is open to countless such readings since he chooses not to add up hints that would lead viewers to a clear conclusion. Here, I'd like to offer a neoplatonic interpretation of the film. '2001' could be said to show the limits of knowledge derived from the senses (here represented by the overwhelming technology), through an highly critical portrait of someone who might qualify as the most expressive symbol of domination - domination of space and time, literally --, the astronaut. Of a man whose growing familiarity with usually unseen realms have numbed, even annihilated his sense of wonder. This blasé conqueror is ultimately betrayed by the technology he himself helped to devise (HAL), but far from a complete disaster, it is a new beginning: it forces him to abandon the 'spirit of conquest' that had guided him; unlike his colleagues, but much like the apes, he does not -- and can't -- envision the monolith as a priced possession, and it brings him closer to his true origin. This new man, free from reflexes that had hindered him previously, now goes beyond mere 'positive' knowledge and is more receptive; he thus can be in contact with what he really is through gnosis (the film's 'last act'). Needless to say, this is merely one possible reading among numerous others... essential viewing.
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Summary: A painful bore, full of trite drug fueled philosophy
Review: yeah that pretty much sums it up, this movie is a painful bore and the philosphy lacks explenation to a point to where its just kinda absurd. It has a few good points in the over all direction but over all its very dated and hardly worth a second thought.
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