reading the book beforehand would help

Rating: 10/10 (24 June 2002)

I think the reason why alot of people didn't "get" this film is because they didn't know the full story behind it. I would be the first to admit that had I not read the book before watching the movie I would've yelled out "WTF!" as well. But I did read the story beforehand and I'm glad I did. Like a few other comments here there were quite a bit more information to the story than what was presented visually in the film so for me, personally, the apes scene at the beginning and the star child scene at the end I knew what's going on.
Now I am not going to pretend I'm brainy and say I knew what Kubrick was trying to do with this film nor am I going to try to figure it out. The purpose of watching a movie is to enjoy it, be it on a pure visual/audio level or on a more intellectual level. Whatever it is, as long as you enjoyed it then the price of admission was all worth it. All I'm saying is if you find out what the story is (even if just skimming through Cole's Notes or some other "cheat sheets") then I think you'll enjoy the movie more.