2001: A Space Odyssey

Rating:
Summary: [:|]
Review: Watch the shuttle dock

To waltzes composed by Strauss

Kubrick impresses

Rating:
Summary: TRASH???
Review: Mental stimulation...hmmm...the one who wrote this movie is trash is on the same level as the apes in the film's beginning...prior monolith. This is by far one of the greatest achievements in film history. Futurism, surealism, this movie is in your face man versus technology...get over it watch it again in ten years and realize your mistaken. A definate classic!

Rating:
Summary: Great movie! Lousy DVD :(
Review: This has to be my favorite movie - ever. The story of the evolution of man via alien influence and the realization of that fact, plus the killer computer, makes this a unique piece of art. My favorite part is when HAL 9000 fails to let Bowman back into the Discovery - its such a Control-Alt-Delete scene.

Sadly, this is the worst DVD transfer I've ever encountered, its muddy, has artifacts popping up all over it, and is completely unwatchable. I'm surprised the studio would allow such a great film to be ruined like this, I suppose its some angry executive's ignorance or perhaps malice to gradually weed critical favorites such as this, in favor of garbage like Wing Commander.

Rating:
Summary: Mind-dulling waste of time!
Review: For the sake of your brain, don't waste your time on this piece of nonsensical trash. It makes no sense, and it moves at a pace that dead people would find slow. I don't understand the praise it has received, nor can I fathom those who hail it as even a "good" movie. I have seen most of Kubrick's films, and I have been pleased with most of them. This one, however, has less cognitive stimulation than talking to a brick wall. If you absolutely, positively, must see it, then by all means attempt to indulge. After you waste two hours trying to decipher its blatant message of sheer stupor and idiocy, you can thank me. On Kubrick's deathbed, his last words were reportedly, "My heavens, did I really make that lab monkey training film into a movie?"

Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: 2001: A Space Odyssey is not as classical as it is made out to be. Some people say it is the best of Kubrick. Others say the best of all time. That, by me, is not quite correct. However, this remains one of the best of Kubrick and certainly one of the best sci-fi's of all time.

There are excellent performances from a largely unknown cast - Keir Duella especially manages to impress in his magnificent lead role. The storyline is not what 2001 is now like, but hey, you can't help but stand up and cheer for Kubrick for such hard work into his accurate direction and scripting. HAL9000 is the real key to this movie though, he is probably one of the best movie villains ever, and although a computer-generated machine, is still a memorable 'character' in this extraodinary piece of art.

2001: A Space Odyssey: A

Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's most indulgent film
Review: The way I see it, this movie is NOT Kubrick's best work, despite all the people who even go so far as to call 2001 the best movie OF ALL TIME. The best movie ever? I think not. This movie is very deep, and its themes of human development and reliance on machines are incredibly intelligent, and Kubrick was way ahead of his time with presenting such concepts back in 1968.

However, my issues with this movie arise in the way that Kubrick presented his themes. I think that his themes are most clear and powerful during the opening sequence with the early primates. The discovery of weapons, and the subsequent use of intimidation, was a highly revealing and well-developed sequence. Despite the fact that there was no dialogue (and there couldn't be dialogue, since the "characters" were only primitive apes), these opening scenes had a clear purpose, and the creative use of cinematography and pacing by Kubrick allowed this purpose time and space to develop. On its own, this sequence would make a highly compelling short film, and the presence of the massive black monolith raises multiple issues about the symbolic possibilities of the scene. It's completely open to interpretation what the monolith actually represents, and that's part of what ties this entire first sequence together and makes it so compelling.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie, in my opinion, does not do as well at presenting Kubrick's ideas. The long and sometimes tedious scenes in space, before the final confrontation with HAL, sometimes distract from the main point of this section: which is that technology can dehumanize humanity if we rely on machines too much. It is a worthy theme, and the best scenes during this part of the movie occur when the human occupants of the "Discovery" are interacting with HAL. Other scenes, however, don't seem as crucial to the movie's theme, and instead seem to be mere visual distractions. For example, Kubrick eats up long stretches of screen time with elaborately-orchestrated "dances" between spaceships trying to dock with each other. While this is initially a fascinating and unique concept, after almost 10 minutes of watching it, it just becomes boring. This kind of visual imagery is basically a more refined version of a sight gag; it's compelling upon first seeing it, but any closer and/or longer examination will just detract from the image's initial worthiness.

That said, there are some truly amazing scenes with HAL in the central part of the movie, and these sustain the tension while advancing Kubrick's overarching themes. Good. Now we get to the ending of the movie. Not so good. What we have here is almost a half hour of lights flickering across a screen. Perhaps this was stunning visual imagery back in 1968, but now it just looks like a cheap screensaver. I'm well aware that it is not fair to criticize a movie merely because its' special effects are outdated, but that is far from my only complaint about this ending sequence. It just cannot be considered good filmmaking to flash multicolored lights across the screen for 30 minutes. This is not artistic; it is just lazy. This sequence in no way adds to the themes that Kubrick has been exploring throughout the rest of the movie. This sequence is supposed to represent the "Discovery" passing through some kind of black hole-type thing in space, but the same sensation could have been achieved over a much shorter period of time. If Kubrick had just indulged his desire for a visually stunning scene over a time of 5 minutes, it still might be boring and vaguely intolerable, but it would certainly be easier to stomach than 30 minutes of the same crud. I don't care what you say about the rest of the movie, but there is just no defending this part.

So, in conclusion, this is a sometimes-visionary, sometimes just boring, and sometimes even poorly-done movie which occassionally approaches brilliance. But just as often, Kubrick's extremist tendencies bring the movie down, just when it seems like it's going to start moving under its own momentum. The main problem is that Kubrick never manages to top the simple brilliance that he achieved within the movie's first 20 minutes. It's disappointing that with all the special effects and complicated cinematography Kubrick expended in the later scenes, he only wound up making a mediocre movie with some great ideas behind it.

If you want to see a truly great Kubrick movie, I'd recommend "The Shining," "Dr. Strangelove," and at least the first half of "Full Metal Jacket" (though the second half isn't bad either, but that's another review).

Rating:
Summary: Profound statement about our origins
Review: Although unintentional for sure, this movie has provided a grand beta-test for modern thought, regarding the origin of man and the universe. Curious? Check out http://www.2001principle.net. This is one of my favorite movies. Stanley Kubrick was a cinematic genius.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, Terrible DVD
Review: This my favorite movie of all time. I can't say enough about how brilliant this movie is, how beautiful, how complex, intelligent, etc. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's fine and understandable. But I love this movie, and I could watch it forever. (BTW: I'm not a big hippie, I don't use drugs, I think science fiction movies are almost all horrible, I don't like "experimental" movies, and I wasn't even born in the 60's).

If you hate this movie, than I'm not going to convince you. See it first, and find out if you like it. If you do like this movie, I'd think twice about buying it anyway. As many people have mentioned, the DVD transfer sucks. It just sucks. This is an enormous problem for a movie that relies so heavily on visuals to hold your interest and move the story along. If any movie in the world deserves a better quality DVD, it's this one. Really a terrible shame.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: 2001 speaks on another level visually.

There is nothing more eerie or awe inspiring than watching the very beginning of the film...darkness, nothing else for 2 minutes while dissonant strings rumble beneath.

The Dawn of Man sequence at the beginning is pure visual minimalist art...no dialogue, no nothing. Just watch... It is here that we're first introduced to the dull black monolith that ties the film together in the most cryptic of ways.

By the time you reach the "meat" of the film, you realize that you're over twenty minutes into it and you haven't heard a word. It was a beautiful moment for me the first time that happened. The music is phenomenal and appropriate from scene to scene...being massively disturbing at points and gently graceful at others.

H.A.L. has got to be one of the most unsettling film villains in history. Calm, calculating...flawed. His (it's) demeanor of logic and rationalizing makes sense yet is very cruel. I actually found myself sympathizing with H.A.L. This is film making taken to the Nth degree. Simply amazing.

"Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite", the film's beautifully bizarre last chapter presents us with stunning computer-generated effects and the disturbing scenario of living an entire life in moments. When the final frame rolls by and you're left to put the film together in retrospect, you find yourself confounded, yet amazed by what you've just seen.

Rating:
Summary: Very memorable
Review: I saw this movie when it first came out. I was 6. I was confused. But I remember it very well.

I remember how excited I was that the world was going to change that much- space flight! video phones! artificial gravity! a talking computer! whew. Of course, it hasn't all happened that way, but it's a very nice, credible view of the future based on the past as seen from the vantage point of 1968.

The silence of space had a very deep impact on me. I'm a lover of silence so I thought I would be very comfortable with it. The monolith was appropriately mystifying.

Oddly, I've seen this movie exactly once. I'm looking forward to actually seeing it in the year it attempted to portray. I hope I'm not disappointed when viewing it in light so many changes in cinematography over the last 33 years.