Unmatched scientific elegance.

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2011)

Did anyone know the actors in this film? No. Neither did I. And that's exactly what Stanley Kubrick wanted - he wanted to create something that was about more than just an actor - it was about life itself.
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the two greatest epics of all time. It is a film of breathtaking technical brilliance that is matched by some of the most ambitious storytelling of all time.
In a nutshell, 2001 tells the story if human evolution.
We start in the past, where our ape ancestors are starving and are perhaps even on the verge of extinction. They fight with other animals over a waterhole, and the general outlook is bleak. That is, until they find a mysterious black monolith that has appeared from nowhere. Our ancestors crowd around the monolith, and soon after they take a step towards evolution when they use their first weapon.
Then, using the finest transitions in film, we flash forward into our own future and see a space dance between a space ship and space station to Johann Strauss' The Blue Danube. We meet a scientist, Dr Haywood Floyd, who is on his way to the moon in secret. Why? Because they have found another monolith on the moon. And, as before, this monolith represents another jump in evolution. Two astronauts, a team of scientists and a computer called HAL embark on a journey towards Jupiter - and then unknown, leading to one of the finest endings in film that will leave you pretty dazzled and initially confused.
With this film though, confusion is what Kubrick was aiming for. I've often heard people say that this is a bad film because it has no conclusive ending, or that it just cheats us out of an answer. But Kubrick was no cheat. He was a man who planned everything. I think that he chose the best possible ending - one that leaves everything open to interpretation because no one know what the future holds, least of all Kubrick. Why provide a wrong answer for the sake of a conventional ending, when you can provide an open, ambiguous ending that asks so much? A conventional ending might have satisfied, up until proved wrong. With this ending, 2001 is timeless.
To match the scope of the storytelling is Kubrick's almost unrivalled genius as a technical director. He is one of just two truly artistic, technical directors who always presented films that were large in scope, yet always grounded. 2001 is entirely grounded in its presentation of science and fact - no sound in space, realistic space ships and stations, realistic travel times between planets. There are no magical powers, no "Warp 5". There is only fact, upon which Kubrick builds his vision.
This film asks everything of mankind. Why are we here? What brought us here? Is there a higher force, and if so is it God, or another alien race? Can we achieve immortality? It asks all these questions and more, yet leaves the answers entirely up to us, because in the end, no one knows what the future holds and therefore how can those questions be answered.
And, finally, it leaves us with one final, wonderful question - What waits for us in this universe?
Perfection achieved on every level.