Turn on your thinking caps

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2000)

Yes, the film is slow. Yes, there is hardly any dialogue. Yes, the opening sequence is strange, cryptic, and contains NO dialogue. Yes, the ending reveals nothing. No, the ending is not climactic in the traditional sense. Yet this is hailed as THE masterpiece of modern science-fiction cinema. Why?
I suspect most of the detractors of this film, particularly those represented by some of these user-comments, forgot to do one thing before watching the film: turn their thinking caps to the "ON" position. This is not the voice of someone jumping on the artsy-film bandwagon. This is the voice of someone who did some serious thinking about the events of the film. Why would the director include this shot or that bit of dialogue? It's like that scene from "Close Encounters"; the more you think about it, the more you realize that this MEANS something, this is IMPORTANT. If the thought that human evolution might have been instigated by an alien consciousness doesn't make you look at the stars with increasing wonder, you're not thinking hard enough. And if you're a serious filmgoer at any level, and you didn't like the film the first time, you owe it to yourself to watch it again. This time, turn your thinking cap on.