Space Documentary

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 2013)

This film's production is marvellous and detailed in such a degree to make your suspension of belief ease you into a convincing piece of speculative fiction. Lacking any human drama, and leisurely in pace, the film features many mundane scenes documenting life, but with many profound consequences.
Exposition is told by various news items, Kubrick's ability to tell a story with images is amazing. A rather simple story depicting human evolution, and conflict with technology, there is little dialogue, but the use of images tells the story compellingly and not without a loss understanding. The images are utterly effective in reaching out to the viewer. The images themselves are strong, generally quite beautifully, and discretely shot, to not disturb the reality the film sets forth.
The acting is very natural, the astronauts are cool and collected, professional at their jobs, and staying away from any unnecessary human emotions to mar the story. HAL 9000, is wonderfully played, his chipper voice a dead set against the human actors, his words filled with almost sarcasm and arrogance, before his genuinely emotional exit.
I like the way humanity's next great venture, that of space travel, is juxtaposed with a symbol of humanity's next great evolution. 2001: A Space Odyssey plays like a documentary filled with wonderful music flow perfectly with the images, and fits the enormity of space adventure. It a glorious undertaking, of great ambition, but shot with such naturalism as to convince us of humanity's achievements. Above all, it is an optimistic movie, of humanity's glowing future.