2001 - A Space Odyssey DVD

Advantages: a masterpiece film
Disadvantages: tedious in places

Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) is a story told in four acts, taking place in four different scenarios revolving around the continual reappearance of an alien and eerie black monolith throughout human history. This is hard-core cerebral science fiction from back in the days when cerebral sci-fi and banal or instant gratification action sci-fi were completely separate entities. We begin with the first act: "The Dawn of Man", where ...
...routine they go through. Chasing away pests, indulging in territorial roaring matches with rival packs of apes, getting picked off by tigers and other predators. This is an image of homo-sapiens before they came to dominate the planet and the food chain. Each violent encounter is portrayed as a completely natural occurance. But then one morning the apes have a visitor. An ominous black monolith, about 8 feet tall. It is with them, completely static, ... Read review

Advantages: A masterful cocktail of visuals, music, sound and attention to detail; monumental and influential; mind-blowing and awesome; haunting and mysterious; imeless and ahead of its time
Disadvantages: An acquired taste (though worth the cinematic experience); inevitable to be regarded as overrated; a couple of instances of dated effects

The connection between Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Terrence Malick -- iconic directors working around the same period -- is that they were more artists than directors. Kubrick, however, was the one who really invented the prospect of films that are practically pure art. Inevitably, this limits the films in their appeal, and there's no doubt that films like Eraserhead, Badlands, Days of Heaven, and most importantly, 2001: A Space Odyssey, are ...
...crafted and directed, that there is simply no other picture like it. 2001: A Space Odyssey breaks all boundaries of films and, literally, goes whooshing off into space at light speed with its ambition and genius. Timeless, beautiful, puzzling and amazing beyond belief, no other film ever can or will be like it. Images of a barren, arid and untouched land stretch out before the viewer. Shrubs, jagged orange rocks, and mountainous heights populate ... Read review

Advantages: An Unique Perspective, A Work Of Art, Improves With Every Viewing
Disadvantages: Mortal Minds Frequently Blow Out, You Realise Your Complete Infreiority To The Master

...Time Magazine called 2001 a collection of 'The most dazzling visual happenings in the history of the motion picture'. This scarcely does the film justice. It is more than visual, a dazzling assault on the senses, a remarkable journey (both literally and metaphorically) through time and space. My first encounter with the movie cam when I was 10 years old and a friend told me of a film that he called 'Twenty Thousand and One'. At once my mind raced. ...
...the film was actually called 2001. This disappointment was short-lived, though. As I watched the movie, I was awed to an extent that I still have to apologise for to this day. I spent the best part of a summer watching this movie over and over again, much to the annoyance of my sister who now hates it. It is at this point that I feel I must apologise for what is to follow. If my opinion becomes less of an analysis and more of a narrative, please ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent storyline, brilliant effects
Disadvantages: It's loooooooooooooong

In the mid-1960s Stanley Kubrick wanted to make a science-fiction movie which would deal with the space exploration and the prospect of the existence of extra-terrestrials. He had previously made the satirical DR. STRANGELOVE, which with its theme of nuclear destruction skirted the genre. Here however, working with the acclaimed science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick came up with the science-fiction classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The film ...
...science-fiction film ever made, whereas others end up baffled and bored. The movie is divided up into four episodes. The first is set millions of years in the past. The second is set at the start of the 21st Century and follows a journey to the moon during which Dr Heywood Floyd visits an excavation which has uncovered an alien artefact which has been buried for a very long time. The third episode moves the story forward by 18 months and follows ... Read review

Advantages: Very intriguing movie that will make you think
Disadvantages: Boring at times

...the same time mesmerized. With 2001 Kubrik takes a fairly mundane storyline, adds much grandeur to the movie, and then blows us away with the metaphoric journey through man's insignificance. From the very first scene where a group of primitive apes are equal to every other life form, and essentially have the same instincts and thirst for survival we immediately realize that Kubrick is concentrating on the reality of what man is, and ...
...when a strange black monolith appears in the ape's water hole, we see initial fear of this strange structure, then an inquisitiveness as one ape touches the monolith. Seemingly this has a profound effect on the apes as they suddenly realize the potential of tools, and begin to destroy a rival clan of apes by using bones as weapons. What follows is probably one of the most famous scenes in the history of sci-fi movies, and perhaps many other genres. ... Read review