Review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Lindsay G — 13 Apr 2016

My overall impression of "2001: a Space Odyssey" by Stanley Kubrick, starring Keir Dullea as David Bowman, was vast confusion. I absolutely loved the effects, sets, and colors. However, the story and execution were a drag.

The movie starts at the "dawn of man", showing apes foraging for food. They then discover a mysterious black rectangular monolith, which evidently teaches them to hunt for food, as well as kill one another. It then went to the year 2000 (presumably), with the character Haywood Floyd. He attends a meeting on a space station, discussing a discovery on the moon, and the need to keep it secret. They never say what it is, but we are led to believe it has to do with the discovery of aliens. Floyd then goes to the moon, and is shown the monolith which had been discovered. It gives off a piercing sound, and we jump 18 months into the future, onto a spaceship headed for Jupiter, on an unknown mission. The two crewmembers Bowman and Poole are in charge, with the help of the artificial intelligence HAL. There are several other crewmembers in cryostasis to conserve life support. Following a mishap, Bowman discovers a recorded message from the leaders of the mission, telling him the true purpose of the mission, which only HAL had been told. It then cuts to the approach to Jupiter, where there is a confusing experience of strange lights and a sudden change of setting that utterly confuses everyone.

There were not really any expectations of the actors based on the short story. The actors did a decent job. However, when it came to conversations, the actors didn't feel organic, and acted as if they had a script, hardly changing their facial expressions.

Each of the three sections began with a shot from space, whether of the planet Earth or Jupiter, or the space station or ship. During the dramatic scenes toward the end, there were several facial close-ups, showing bowman in his space helmet. This is poignant when showing him looking at something we haven't seen yet; we could see the unclear reflection of it in his helmet. When there was the confusing psychedelic light show, it had several shots of Bowman's eye blinking in different colors.

It is clear that "2001: a Space Odyssey" is based on "The Sentinel", but is more an adoption of the concepts rather than an interpretation of the story. Both have the strange monolith, discovered on the moon. Both imply extraterrestrial origin. However, the main story in "a Space Odyssey" is the Jupiter mission, not the moon discovery. Also, the movie goes beyond the cliffhanger of the short story, to the point of almost explaining the item's origin. It is not the same story, but the reasonable adaptation for a film.

In conclusion, the ending was heavily confusing and unsatisfying, and there were far too many long cuts and loud, annoying music tracks. However, It is a movie that one should see, for historical purposes, and to appreciate the excellent effects and sets. The story in the middle is also interesting, but one should not be too invested in it.