The Ultimate Sci-Fi Experience! OR The Godfather of all Sci-Fi Films....

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2009)

Standing Ovation, please, Ladies and Gentlemen! Here's presenting you the finest Sci-fi adventure you will ever have the fortune of experiencing!
I am not very much a fan of Sci-fi films, but I must admit I was blown away by this 1968 Stanley Kubrick + Arthur C. Clarke venture called "2001: A Space Odyssey". An exception is the 1979 Ridley Scott Classic, "Alien" which is a close second!
But "2001..." takes the cake and outshines them all! This is arguably Kubrick's career-best work as a director!
Saying or mentioning anything about the plot/concept is sacrilege. This film is best left to the audience to experience without any prior knowledge. Suffice to say, it is a dazzling movie-viewing experience, one best enjoyed with the fullest advantage of sight and sound, i.e. best watched in the dark, on a considerably big screen, with stereophonic sound.
Stanley Kubrick has achieved through special sets and photographic effects, what none of the other film-makers of later years have achieved even with the best of CGI. The Oscar for Best Special/Visual effects was well-deserved..only I wish he had won for Best Director too. The acting by the actors who play the three central characters, Keir Dullea (Dr. Dave Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Dr. Frank Poole) and William Sylvester (Dr. Heywood Floyd) is quite good, if not great. But quite frankly, acting is not the department the film is trying to excel in. What it tries to achieve and succeeds brilliantly in, is to try and tell the story that it intends to tell in the most innovative manner ever! Quite possibly "2001.." would've turned out to be just another sci-fi film had it been made by a lesser director. The film has a certain aura about it, which may perhaps have been missing had it not been for Kubrick's involvement!
Who else would've had the guts or the vision to use classical music and the sound of silence with some heavy breathing as a background score to this film..with minimal use of dialog!? There is some brilliant music by Johann Strauss (On The Beautiful Blue Danube) in the film which perfectly complements the "Space Odyssey" scenes! And then there is the now legendary "Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra)" theme by Richard Strauss which appears during some of the key scenes in the film. Also worth mentioning are the spacey soundscapes used in certain other key scenes. One can't help but be reminded of Pink Floyd's psychedelic days from the late 60s. No wonder then, that Pink Floyd were actually approached to perform music for this film (They, however, turned the offer down!).
As mentioned earlier, the Visual effects and special photographic effects by Kubrick, Douglas Trumbull and team is extraordinary! Such a feat was never done before, nor was it achieved later.. It is little wonder then, that Kubrick ordered all prints of unused scenes, sets, props, miniatures, and production blueprints destroyed.
The screenplay penned together by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke is brilliant.. The fantastic score and finally the Godly directorial work of Stanley Kubrick make this film an experience of a lifetime..
Buy this film..it is one of those rare films which deserve a place in a time capsule buried to be discovered by future generations....