2001: A Space Odyssey – 3 ½ / 5 stars

I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

After finding a million year old monolith buried on the Moon, a crew of astronauts and their onboard computer HAL-9000, head to Jupiter to follow the signal given off by the ancient structure.

Another classic checked off my list that I was glad to finally see. First off, I just want to say that it’s amazing seeing this and knowing that it came out in 1968, over 50 years ago. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining), and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.

Overall, it still holds up really well with the scenes in space and on the space station. Some parts, I still have no idea how they were filmed, and that was impressive.

After seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey, I can completely understand why it is a classic. When it was released, it must’ve been revolutionary for the space/sci-fi genre, as well as all movies, scientifically accurate depiction of space travel and special effects. Setting sci-fi aside, it was also crazy with some of the futuristic things it predicted that we actually have today, such as widescreen televisions, TVs in the headrests on airplanes, video calls,  and intelligent computer assistants (remember, they can read lips).

Interestingly enough, when Kubrick decided to make the greatest masterpiece in sci-fi cinema, he didn’t think any previously written sci-fi novel was worthy of his vision for the big screen. So instead, he recruited Arthur C. Clarke to write a script for him to adapt.

However, some parts were too slow and took way too long. Some that jump to mind is the opening with “The Dawn of Man,” and what could’ve been a quick scene showing man/monkey discover the first monolith was instead a 20 minute miniature film about the first war between two monkey tribes and how one discovered how to use a bone as a weapon. Another was toward the end when Dave went in the wormhole. It was cool at first, but then just ended up being a 15 min psychedelic trip that didn’t make any sense. Other parts throughout the film just messed with the pacing overall. I really enjoyed the main story with Dave and HAL, but the slow parts almost made me fall asleep at one point.

I had no idea what the ending meant. It wasn’t even an ambiguous ending where it could be left up to interpretation. It just didn’t make sense, and after a little research, it wasn’t supposed to. According to Screenrant, Clarke thought that if the movie could be completely understood and answered all the questions asked, he would’ve felt like Kubrick failed. Well, well done there. Mission accomplished!

In conclusion, I rated 2001 3 ½ / 5 stars. I think it’s amazing what this film achieved so long ago and how it has influenced the entire sci-fi genre. Many of the scenes still hold up very well, while some were way too drawn out and slow paced. It was good to see to understand its cultural significance and to see how influential it has been to the science fiction genre.