More style than substance

Rating: 4/10 (12 February 2006)

I finally had the chance to watch 2001 all the way through and I must say it was dull for most of the time. As a piece of art I guess it would be fine but to actually pay money to see it would be a stretch.
I try to have an open mind when viewing films and I may have a bias because of the times we live in today, but if you can't figure out what the film is about then the filmmaker failed and this film fails.
I'm not asking for the "meaning" to be handed to me on a plate but one needs to see a basic structure in order to suggest a meaning in the viewers mind.
The first part of the film with the apes, I could see the point being made. The part of the film set on the ship with HAL was another good bit of story telling. The parts in between added nothing to the plot.
It really reminded me of the film "Empire" or even "****" both by Andy Warhol where every detail is shown no matter how useless it is to the story. The part of 2001 where we follow Dr. Floyd on his trip first to the space station and then to the moon - it is almost like watching it in real time. I'm bothered by the current fashion of the music video fast cuts but did we really need to see Floyd's moon transport being lowed into the moon base after it lands?
I do like Stanley Kubrick's films and he is a great director but many of his later films were more coherent than 2001. I'm glad he got better over the long run - "Eyes Wide Shut" being the exception of course.