Impressive for its time.

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2014)

This being my first time watching the movie, I didn't find it as enjoyable as someone likely did if they watched it several decades ago. The mysterious monolith kept me intrigued for the better part of the movie, and I quite enjoyed how the movie had minimal dialogue and was mainly about observation. The movie was definitely ahead of its time - especially with video effects; and the film really had an impact on how movies were made today. On top of that, it had absolutely chilling music that still managed to give goosebumps.
The major thing that made me not enraptured by the film was the prolonged scenes that made the length of the movie unnecessarily long. I felt like several portions of the movie were drawn-out to make the viewer watch in awe of how amazing and advanced life is in the future and in space, which really diminishes the movies test of time. Upon the movies release it was likely enjoyable to watch those long and slow scenes, but today it feels otherwise.
Aside from the movie not being as enjoyable to those who may have watched a plethora of more modern science fiction movies - it still is worth a watch, just to see how impressive it is for a movie made in the 60's.