Very big let down

Rating: 2/10 (28 January 2006)

I bought this movie because "2001: A Space Odyssey", was one of the "classics" I had not yet seen. I had a brief prior understanding of the plot (the whole Hal thing), but was fairly in the dark about this movie. I was excited when I sat down to watch it.
I can honestly say I gave this movie a shot, but for me, this movie was something akin to watching a plant grow for three hours. I am sure there are some that find this movie to be a masterpiece. But I have to believe for most of the public, this movie was almost intentionally boring.
Now intellectuals will claim, "You just don't understand the brilliance of 2001: A Space Odyssey". Well I am hear to tell you it it has nothing to do with understanding...rather its about "wanting to understand". I have no interest in spending 3+ hours of my life being supremely bored, trying to analyze what Stanley Kubrick was trying to communicate 35+ years ago.
The purpose of any movie is to entertain, and if after being entertained you can take away a deeper meaning in a movie, then all the better. But you first must have an entertainment value, which in my opinion this movie was devoid of.
When I finally hit the stop button on this movie, I could not describe how let down I was. I am not into space movies all that much. Lasers, phasers and androids are not my thing. But one of my favorite movies was "Alien" - A slow paced movie that thrived into a classic because of the incredible suspense associated with it. There was a great payoff after the first hour of waiting.
When I was in college, in my Literature class we used to sit around for hours discussing what the author (i.e Twain, Hemmingway, Poe, etc...) "really meant" in his book. I always used to suggest he meant what was written in his/her book, hence why he wrote it. I was usually dismissed as "not getting it" as others suggested some deeper meaning, something the author did not write, but somehow what he actually meant.
OK, whatever. Everyone is different. Some people see 2001: A Space Odyssey as a masterpiece. I see it as an extremely over-hyped movie, the most boring movie I have ever seen and I will never watch again.
And in the rare case this movie had some deeper meaning that Stanley Krubrick wanted you to find, I have to ask....Who Cares?