THE GREATEST LEAP FORWARD THE FILM WORLD HAS EVER EXPERIENCED.

Rating: 10/10 (24 January 2003)

I am quite possibly one of Mr Kubrick's most devoted fans, I think he is the best film director the world has ever seen, and this film was his finest work. Here is my opinion why..
Visually 2001 has (for its time) the best special effects the film world has ever seen. It was (excuse the pun) an astronomical evolutionary jump forward, not only visually but also in way a film flows. It's totally unique; the use of music to propel the awe-inspiring plot and intellectual narrative is quite brilliant. Where as before music was mostly used to control the audience emotions.
Some of the shots and camera work in this film are GENIUS. THE FAMOUS JUMP SHOT, the Leopard with the light reflecting off its retinas as it consumes a dead Zebra. The beautiful space scenes, coupled with just the right use of eerie/spectacular music send shivers of wonder and awe down the spine.
The plot is a great one, I especially love the beginning and indeed the whole back bone of the story which suggests that we as a race did not come to be through just evolution or just divine intervention, BUT BOTH!!! This is the over riding plot in the film which comes to a conclusion in the end. But more on the end later.....
HAL is strangely in my opinion the best character in the film. In that he is the most complex and is the hardest to understand. Did HAL "EVOLVE" into something more than a computer??? And therefore doesn't it seem normal that he would indeed try to protect himself against being shut down my Dave and the others???? I feel the whole story is a superb intellectual battle, between HAL and the humans (which is also a physical battle), HAL and himself (against his programming)......and most importantly the humans fighting with their inner beliefs as they start to gain an insight into where their past and indeed their future originated and originates.
And now the ending, well Kubrick did say in interviews that I have heard that he didn't intend to puzzle people so much with the ending, its just the way it came across. But he was really very pleased that that's what happened. He never let on what he thought the ending meant (One of his prime principles in his films was to let the audience make up their own mind.) In my opinion its really quite simple and beautiful, Dave is transported though hyper space (either through mind or body, its a matter of opinion) then once their in this strange place in space or his mind, keeps seeing the black monolith and every time he touches it he seems to get older, then he finally ceases to hold a human from and his body dies of old age. Transporting him to a higher level of being.
In short no film has made me think and indeed ponder as much as this one. The visuals, music, and narrative are the best I've ever seen. The only fault is the acting, there's nothing bad about it but there's also nothing great about it. Maybe Stan wanted that know who knows>
THIS IS NOT A FILM ITS SOMETHING ELSE, SOMETHING WONDERFUL, THAT I DOUBT WILL EVER BE EXPERIENCED AGAIN.