2001: A Space Odyssey is an epic sci-fi film that was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's 1951 short story, The Sentinel. It was produced by Stanley Kubrick Productions and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 2001: A Space Odyssey was written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
The story is, Dr. Dave Bowman and his fellow astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission. They seem to being doing just fine, but soon start to notice that their computer system HAL 9000 begins to act strangely. Soon, man and machine are locked in a showdown that'll result in a mind bending trek through space and time.
My Thoughts
Now, I'm gonna get a lot flack but one slight criticism I have with 2001: A Space Odyssey is with Stanley Kubrick's directing. Let me do some praising first then I'll explain. Now there's no doubt Kubrick was a tremendous director. All of his films were absolute winners. He had a great eye, and even if it was a horror movie [The Shining] he still made it look fantastic. One of his trademarks was very long shots. A lot of those shots have become many of the most iconic shots in cinematic history. However, I think there was quite a few times he overdid it in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Because of this two things will happen when you watch this. 1) You're gonna feel that two hour runtime or 2) the film's gonna feel longer than it already is. So because of the slight overuse of long shots Kubrick really messed with the film's pacing.
Alright now with that out of the way, let's get into 100% praising. One of those being the cinematography. Geoffrey Unsworth did an amazing job. He should be credited just as much as Kubrick for how the film looked. The "Dawn of Man" scenes alone should tell you how talented he was. Some of the backgrounds almost look like paintings.
Then we have HAL 9000. There's no doubt this is one of the many iconic movie villains. Before the Terminator, HAL 9000 was our worst fear of technology turning against. But even without the fact that HAL has unlimited power over the astronauts, it's also creepy how not once does his voice changes. He sounds cold throughout. Hell, this is such an iconic villain, that people who haven't seen the movie are well aware of HAL 9000.
The last thing I'll praise is the story. I've heard and read many interpretations. Some I agree with more than others. With that being said, I praise the movie for being a story about how aliens helped us evolve without being fully involved. What I mean is at the very beginning of the film we're introduced to The Monolith. This thing is clearly a device made by an alien race, which helped evolved from apes and then whatever our next step of evolution is. But, but, having said that, the movie does a spectacular job on not overly telling us it's aliens. Which fun fact, Kubrick did play with the idea of having a big alien reveal at the end. And me along with everyone else are grateful he didn't do that. Without a look, a name, and little to no information, they feel like something else entirely then what we're use to when it comes to extraterrestrials.
Despite my slight criticism at the beginning, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a fantastic sci-fi, where even if there are some bad spots, I believe the good outweighs the bad.
My final rating is, A Must Watch!
That's all for now, come back on Saturday, May 25th, for my review of The Garfield Movie. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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