Review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Jessica E — 13 Apr 2016

The 1968 film Space Odyssey: 2001 produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick is a film you need to watch with extra close attention, though you may find it hard due to the slow pace. At first glance of the movie it seems slow, boring, almost feels as if there is not plot. If you feel this way, you need to watch it again.

The audience watching this movie needs to have an open mind, if you don't than you will feel lost the entire movie. In the beginning, a tribe of Apes discover how fun it is to hit each other over the head when a monolith appears on Earth. If you take notice, up until this moment we have only seen natural shapes such as trees, arms/legs, rocks, etc. But the monolith has straight edges and corners, meaning perfection. The apes surround it, examining it cautiously, reaching out to touch it and then pulling their hand away- hundreds of years into the future, man will be reaching for the stars in the same manner. The setting jumps to the year 2001, while exploring on the moon another monolith is discovered. This one sends signals towards Jupiter, with the advanced machine man follows the signals trail. Keir and Gary are the pilots of the craft and start to become suspicious of Hal, the robot that runs the craft. Kubrick did a good job with special effects, the spaceship moves at a very slow pace through space because Kubrick is trying to give the audience a realistic feel. If it zooms around space, we would think it looked unrealistic. In the last half hour of the movie, the machines are "forgotten" and the film concentrates more on man. This symbolizes that one day man will outgrow his machines or be drawn past them.

The actors seemed emotionless, to the point where I'm not sure I'd even call them actors (was absent second day of film, missed some actors parts). I knew nothing about this movie before we watched it therefore I had no expectations except for it being interesting and possibly have some action in it. The film did not appeal to me because it was hard to follow, if I would have read an overall summary first or some reviews, I would have known what to expect. In my opinion, if the audience needs to read an overview before they watch the film, it is not a good film.

Kubrick did well with the sound effects and background music. Most of the time, the background music was super drug out and quite often I found it annoying. But, the music always fit with what was going on, on screen. At the beginning of each different background song, you really feel the emotion Kubrick is aiming for (usually intensity), but the songs would be so drug out the feeling would fade.

I have not read the novel or watched the play therefore I have no comparisons or DE comparisons.

This film is for an audience with patients and ability to follow along by picking up the clues Kubrick gives you. I recommend reading some reviews and/or plot summary's before watching if you feel you will struggle to follow along, but don't read too much! This is not a movie I would recommend to anybody in this modern day, in 1968 I'm sure this film was a huge deal, it was a prediction of our future.