Maybe I need more caffeine...

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 1998)

This film put me to sleep more times than any other film I have ever seen. It is positively the most boring film ever made. Kubrick has done great work with A Clockwork Orange and Spartacus, but when he tries to do profoundly thought-provoking films, he tends to put viewers to sleep. I can argue against every single aspect of this movie, save the special effects, which are still fabulous even today.
My problems with the film include a plot that is about as sporadic as the average Hollywood producer's creative processes. Now, when I see a film concerning space travel, I assume it should be interesting to watch. However, Kubrick managed to even turn off interest. If I wanted to watch a realistic exploration of space travel, I'd watch NASA videos. But for movies in a theater, I want to be entertained. I want to see the screen and watch something new. 2001 didn't do that for me. If I had been alive in 1968, my opinion may have been different, because space travel wasn't something most people had been used to. For me, I've seen it so many times that the film doesn't bring anything new to me. I've seen it all done before, usually in reality, not film. Therefore, I was hoping for a plot, and there wasn't one.
The opening sequence is a masterpiece, just because it actually provides some great moments. But once the bone is thrown into the air, be sure to grab your coffee or Pepsi or No-Snooz. The bone thrown into the air has to be the most overrated sequence in the history of film. Everyone keeps saying, "The morph from the bone to the ship is absolutely stunning." WHAT MORPH? There is just a straight cut from the bone to the ship... and it just didn't work. The ship didn't look like the bone, and I don't know why everyone gets so worked up over it. It boggles the mind...
And boggling the mind seems to be Kubrick's strong point. The final sequence as Kubrick gives us a light and sound show goes on for what feels like three hours. I actually fast-forwarded the scene just to get through it without falling asleep. And the star child... what was that all about? Who was it? What was the room he arrived in? I believe that any other director in any other film would have been ridiculed and laughed at for years for making the exact same scene. But because Kubrick's name is attached, it gains this "respect" that is rather... annoying... to say the least. It's an overrated sci-fi film that provides moments of entertainment, and the rest is merely filler for your average insomniac.