The greatest achievement in cinema.

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2009)

This is it: Kubrick's masterstroke. Science fiction's magnum opus and quite possibly the greatest film of all.
The opening credits is a moment of perfection. Like nothing else in cinema it makes my hair stand on end and brings me close to tears. How Kubrick managed this, to birth such a powerful beginning in mere seconds, amazes me. The sun peaking over the planet's edge to the tune of Strauss' Thus Spake Zarathustra -- it practically screams "dawn of man" without ever saying a word.
Out of this is spawned an incredible journey through mankind's evolution. Technically marvelous, every detail is accounted for and engineered for a purpose. The innovation of "2001" saturates the film in every frame. The silence of space, the technologies of the future, the foreseeing of man's utter reliance on machines. There is no other film with as great a scope.
Before science fiction was tenable "2001" made it so. Before we landed on the moon Kubrick took us there.