Thus Spake Stanley Kubrick

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2003)

2001 is a landmark film. While some easily dismiss it boring, indulgent, tedious, unexplainable, or whatever other slanderous adjectives, this visionary picture has garnered a cult following of appreciators for very good reasons. Were it not for the (as I deem it) ignorant backlash against it, 2001 would stand alongside Dr. Strangelove in Kubrick's catalog, absolutely deserving its status in the IMDB top 20 with that delightful piece of political satire and black humour. There's certainly a better case for it than for say, LOTR: The Two Towers, which by popular demand, outranks even Star Wars (1977) in the #9 spot as I write this review. Enough whining.
Kubrick crafted a picture here that is what the big screen is all about. That's why it's a travesty that most of us will probably never see it in the theatre. The visuals are stunning. How, in the late 1960s, he was able to capture on celluloid those unforgettably colorful images of being sucked into a wormhole and into another dimension is an incredible feat. To craft so villainous a character with the HAL 9000 is another. Those who have seen it, like or dislike, likely still carry around in the back of their minds HAL's haunting, off-key rendition of "Bicycle Built for Two".

So if you fall in the category of those who watched 2001 and didn't like it because "there was no plot" or "it was too long", then I suggest coming back to it when you're ready to find out what this medium has to offer. Until then, feast on the trite crap found in recent Hollywood productions: Charlie's Angels 2, Bad Boys 2, and on and on and on.