A movie you needn't bother yourself with watching.

Rating: Null/10 (6 July 2002)

"2001: A Space Odyssey", a movie heralded to be one of the greatest Science Fiction films of all time, if not the greatest.
In actuality, "2001" is little more than a special effects bonanza with a great musical score.
The movie is about...uhh.... It's about some monolith thing that lands on Earth at the dawn of mankind. And...I'm not sure what it has to do with anything. The movie eventually skips to the time of space travel, and some other strange things happen.
That, right there, is the movie's biggest fault. Many fans of the movie like how ambiguous the film is, for it gives very little insight into what is happening throughout it. Now, a movie that is a bit mysterious and sometimes allows the viewer to come up with their own interpretation of what's happening is okay, but this film tells you almost nothing. You are almost completely left in the dark about everything that happens during the course of the film. I'm sorry, but, I LIKE TO HAVE AN INKLING OF WHAT'S GOING ON IN A MOVIE. If the movie expects me to come up with everything that's happening, then, why am I watching this film? I could just lay on my bed and imagine my own sci-fi adventure while playing some classical music in the background, instead, and save myself some money.
There are some good points to this film. For one thing, the visual effects are fantastic (they won the movie an Academy Award, from what I've heard), and still hold up great today. The ships are intricately detailed, both inside and out. Zero-Gravity effects were also pulled off remarkably well. The special effects are a little over-the-top, sometimes, and can last for a painfully long amount of time (imagine this: A segment of the film consists of little more than an array of colors that come toward the screen in an assortment of patterns. This lasts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 minutes). Overall, the film looks great, and, since they didn't have all those fancy CG effects back in those days, you are sometimes left wondering, "How'd they do that?" Even the guys in the ape suits are convincing.
The musical score is also very good. Enjoyable, inspiring, memorable.... You've probably heard some of these songs on TV shows and commercials many times.
The characters and acting are forgettable (except, of course, when the HAL 9000 computer is concerned. Isn't it ironic? There's many human characters in this film, and the computer is the only one that really manages to instill any emotion in the viewer). They, mostly, play second fiddle to the visual effects.
So, all in all, if this movie had more interesting characters in it, and something that resembled a plot, I could've truly enjoyed it. As it is, all I got from the film was a greater appreciation of the musical piece "Blue Danube".
But...who knows? Perhaps, this film is just too high-brow for me, and my feeble mind was unable to truly grasp the greatness of this movie (although a friend of mine who watched it with me, who happens to be far more intelligent than I, didn't understand any of it either).
MEGAMUR's Final Opinion: Many people consider this film to be a "Thinking Man's Movie". Honestly, I think it's quite the opposite. If you don't think at all during the course of the movie, and just look at the pretty pictures and listen to the nice music, and not expect anything from the plot or characters, you'll be a-okay. Otherwise, use your brain, and watch something else.
That's my two cents.