Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ depicts the world from primitive times to the moment computers start thinking for themselves, and becoming superior to Man who invented them. This film will not satisfy every palate, and the ending is like poetry that needs to be analyzed.
The film starts off in prehistoric times, and almost looks like a documentary – without narration. It then jumps ahead to the space era. Here, Dr Floyd from the National Council of Astronautics travels to the Clavius base on the moon. The purpose of his visit is to gather additional information to the possibility of an epidemic at the base.
However, we would never know the results of his investigation, as the film then jumps ahead 18 months and we meet Dave and Frank on a mission to Jupiter. Their ship is controlled by a super computer called HAL. When Dave and Frank become concerned about HAL and plan to disconnect it, HAL takes matters into its own hands.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is a symphony of beautiful visuals and colourful imagery. Stanley Kubrick’s vision of space travel can be considered the pioneer of sci-fi movies. The film also takes its time showcasing these marvelous visuals, accompanied by a classical score. ‘2001’ looks incredible considering it was made almost six decades ago.
However, the film concentrates so much on the visuals that it is insanely slow moving. You can easily use the fast-forward button at times and you won’t miss a thing! Every…scene…is…just…so…slow… Apart from this, it also really wasn’t all that interesting. The story could have been told in about half the time. And can someone please explain that strange ending? I can’t imagine people were satisfied leaving the theatre back in 1968…
Despite being an extremely well made movie, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ was just way too slow for my liking, and I became bored. The visuals alone was not enough to keep me interested, and I was relieved when the credits rolled.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ received 32 award nominations, winning 18 including the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. It also received Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Set Decoration.
Would I watch it again? No.
Paul's Movie Reviews 