2001: A Space Odyssey – Movie Review

*MAJOR SPOILERS*

Now before I go any further I would like to explain myself on how I reviewed this film. I promise I went into this movie with an open mind and no plans to compare this film to any others. But I did, however, review this film very harshly since it has been known to define the sci-fi genre since its inception. So here it goes.. My review of 2001: A Space Odyssey!

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a beautiful piece of cinematography, even for its age at almost half a century old. The only thing that lacks in 2001 is.. well.. everything else. 2001 is a 1968 sci-fi/mystery film about human evolution and their quest to answer questions about an artificial object found on the lunar surface. For my review I will start off with everything I enjoyed about the movie, and then go on to what I had some issues with.

Now although 2001 is a beautiful movie at its core, it lacks in almost every other field except for it’s sound department. The sounds and music featured throughout this film were absolutely phenomenal. Although I see the opening as more of a con, the music made it worth wild. From beginning to end, this film featured an amazing amount of music, from Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, to the unsettling chorus from Requiem by György Ligeti, this movie had some of the best music I have heard in a movie so far. On the other side of things, the sound effects and sound design was by far amazing for its time. The moments where we can only hear Keir Dullea breathing in his space suit are absolutely stressful (in a good way). With every breath he takes I find myself mimicking him, giving a sense of presence and urgency to every scene it is featured in. Kubrick does an amazing job portraying stress and suspense through even the tiniest of cues, and for that I applaud him! Not only does 2001 do an amazing job with its sound design, but also its cinematography. Heck, it even won an Oscar for it! Every scene in this movie was amazing back in its day, and still holds its ground even by today’s standards. This film looked absolutely beautiful with all of its props and models that I was just blown away that this film is almost 50 years old! So again, I applaud Mr. Kubrick for his attention to detail, and passion in his visuals.

Now here is were 2001 lost me, and the reason why I gave it such a low score on theVade Review Bar. The easiest way to sum up my issues with the movie is with one single sentence; which is that: It is a movie based on a short story. Now I know that doesn’t sound like much of an argument against this supposed sci-fi masterpiece, but I believe that statement holds some value in itself. 2001 spends a lot of its time with little to no narrative, and no explanation of its story whatsoever. The movie could have been a half hour film, but instead it drags out its scenes with black screens, music, or visual effects. I mean, just look at the star gate sequence when Dave is being transferred into another dimension. The scene was almost 10 minutes long, yet there was no need for it to be that drawn out (other than to show its amazing visual effects, and powerful soundtrack). To me, the scene was beautiful, but unnecessarily long. Now although my issues with 2001 are mainly tied to Kubrick dragging on his film through long and unnecessary sequences, the thing that really turned me off right away was the “Dawn of Man” scene. It was completely unnecessary (yes, I know it wasn’t for other purposes), and was just plain boring. To be honest, I almost turned the movie off right then and there. In my opinion, 2001 is probably one of the worst paced films I have yet to see, and that still isn’t the main reason as to why I rated this film the way I did.

The main reason why 2001: A Space Odyssey failed me was the lack of character development throughout the film. The film switches its main character half way through the movie, leaving me (and probably the audience) wondering what happened to him. Although the movie is mainly about HAL and Dave, we never get to learn who they really are. We learn more about HAL than Dave, and HAL is killed off way before Dave is. With all the time spent on black screens and loud music, you’d think they would have provided a little more information on these two character’s arcs. This is where I feel 2001 failed, as there is plenty of time that could have spent on plot and character growth, but Kubrick instead went with visuals and music. Don’t even get me started on Frank’s death. I mean seriously, who jumps out of a spacecraft from 50 yards away with no tether! Who does that? Frank’s death could have been completely prevented if he had just parked the pod next to coms array! GAH!

So to wrap it all up before I start finding more things to critique this movie on, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a beautiful looking and sounding film, with horrible pacing and little to no character development. It was a film that should have been 30 minutes long, but instead was filled with boring, dragged out sequences and black screens. Overall, I do not think that 2001 should stand as THE movie that defines the sci-fi genre. I’ll happily give that title to Star Wars from now on. So to conclude this review I decided to give 2001: A Space Odyssey a “Bad” on theVade Review Bar. It was a movie that had too much, but not enough.