Pretension always does pay off

Rating: 10/10 (13 November 2011)

Tempestuous waters are expected when it comes to judge one of the ''untouchables'' in motion pictures history. Thankfully, or maybe shamefully, there is nothing I could find to complain about 2001; the grandiose proportions of everything it represents impressed me just as much as (almost) everyone.
Much is discussed about a profound boredom caused by the extensive length, on top of an apparently phlegmatic nonsensical narrative, being responsible for turning the experience less pleasurable on a film that could be rather accessible entertainment. Perhaps so, but that would result in an unbearably common, appellative flick, hated with merit by many. Instead, what Kubrick offered to our amusement-hunger brains is a monumental spectacle, with a rather necessary linear narrative, reaching a psychedelic climax that most certainly was responsible for the Odyssey's immortality.
Fellow immortals György Ligeti, Strauss and Khachaturian set the tone as the viewer entwine humanity's dawn and forward, in clear communion with the arcane presence of a monolith. Dr. Heywood Floyd's mission to the moon, along with the celebrated HAL 9000's ''arc'' have a particular 60's atmosphere that somehow, through its opacity and tension, prepares the spectator to the abstract voyage that will follow.
Oddly, 2001: A Space Odyssey is not a movie that I intend to watch more than once. After all, it is not easily digestible. But it did succeed in causing me an everlasting good impression; and judging by its majesty, pretentiousness, perfect soundtrack, phenomenal images and concepts, not to mention the fortunate participation of the exotics HAL and even the monolith, it must be said that pretension always does pay off.