One of the greatest films ever.

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2004)

Obtuse, inaccessible, deliberately paced... in short, one of the greatest films of all time!!!! Forget the stunning visual achievement, the masterful and incredibly influential score, the sublimely subdued acting, the brilliant direction and camerawork, the poignant (lack of) dialogue, the bits of disconnected and reconnected narrative, and the patently Kubrickian humor... the stances taken and the questions posed are amongst the most profoundly philosophical to ever appear in film!
This is probably the only film that subjugates plot' in a traditional sense for that of sustained metaphor  whether visual or musical, scene dependent or 2.5 hour film wide. Something like 80% of the film is carried without dialogue  and more successfully than any treatment could that featured dialogue. For that reason, most people don't get' it.

In fact, there's not a whole lot to get' if you're looking for one or two unified master threads of narrative, an answer to a question, a continuing plot. This isn't like "The Usual Suspects" where everything gets all wrapped up in a tidy package at the end, rewarding you for sitting through 2.5 hours of non-linearity and confusion. Kubrick provides no answer, no goal, only a journey. Confused? You're supposed to be! Is that not a valid effect one can create in a film? Like Bowman releasing the physical body of Poole from the mechanic grip of B Pod, you too must let go the assumptions and expectations created by viewing a lifetime of largely jejune films. Once you start to recognize and appreciate the metaphoric subtleties (i.e. birth/baby/birthday metaphors; tool use and eventual dead ending of a consciousness that relies on that physicality 4 million years later; eyes of perception; conceptual twinnings; macro and microcosmic conjunctions; etc.), Kubrick's statements become so obvious that it's hard to believe you missed them before!

Every single detail in this movie was intentional. It is a completely conscious work, it is art. It's (loosely, though primarily) a film about the next step' of evolution in a transcendental rather than physical sense, and about the consciousness and reflexivity that, despite every other conceivable difference, is universally at the base of all intelligent beings in the universe. But characteristically, Kubrick paints many many threads, some of which lead in different or even opposing directions. This is intentional, this is genius, there are no answers in this film. That's the point. You can't appreciate this film in one viewing. You may start to appreciate it at 5 viewings. Does that bespeak a failing of the film or a failing of the average American viewer? I think the answer is obvious The sheer scope, achievement, and courageously non-linear treatment of such an audacious set of topics has never and will never be duplicated! One of my favorites! I had privilege to view a fresh print of the film at the AFI Silver Theatre, and I can say with absolute confidence you have not truly seen it until you've seen it on the big screen and involuntarily covered your ears at the volume of the Monolith's radio emission! Kubrick!