Still one of the greatest

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2005)

2001 is probably the most philosophical movie I've ever seen in my life. It's meanings and themes shift through every time you see it and you always find something new from it. It is a long movie, but it never turns tiresome.
Ages ago, before man was aware of his surroundings a bunch of man apes were living their life. On one day, a huge monolith appeared and suddenly apes begun to evolve. They figured out how to use weapons. From this we shift into the future, where similar artifact is found from the moon. Soon scientist are sent to research it... and the it happens, the monolith sends a message, which is tracked towards Jupiter. So, a group of explorers are sent forward to see, what is out there.
Now, this is not a very typical sci-fi movie. There are no big bangs, no blood thirsty aliens but just two men and a computer. Main characters of the movie are Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea), Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain), which is one of the most memorable movie villains ever. Yes, the bad guy of the movie is man made super computer. But it's not HAL's fault really. HAL is just doing what it is programmed to.
Acting is very good throughout whole movie, but most memorable part is HAL 9000, which is one of my favorite performances in movie history.
Special effects of the movie are truly spectacular, when viewed on when they were made (1968) and even in todays standards, which is very rare thing on older special effects. They did not win special effects Oscar (only one on Kubricks career) for nothing.
20001: Space Odyssey doesn't let you go easily. You really need to think what you see. Kubrick didn't want to serve you readily chewed dish of pseudo philosophy ala Matrix, but a genuine possibility for the viewer to really reflect himself and humanity.