Review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Erg1008 — 31 Aug 2010

Stanley Kubrick's epic sci-fi tale involving monkeys, space, monoliths & a Russian Leonard Rossiter.

The first two hours of the film are fine, yes it does drag a little here & there, but builds the story up nicely.

The parts with HAL & Dave & Frank are, for me, just fantastic.

You get a great sense of claustrophobia with the space suit scenes & the breathing being the only soundtrack. There's also something very sinister about HAL singing Daisy Daisy, with his voice getting lower & lower.

Then the last half hour. I watched it again just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Looking at some of the other reviews, it seems I'm not alone in missing the point of it. Total nonsense.

Anyway, aside from that, it is still a good film which has stood the test of time 40 years on. Great visuals, brilliant soundtrack & very influential in the way sci-fi films were made afterwards.