Very interesting, but...

Rating: Null/10 (1 October 2001)

Looked great, good ideas, great music, awesome cinematography. Was very surprised when I found out it was released prior to man landing on the moon. But afterwards, it made since. It shows what space would be like it all of it's slow and tedium and silence. Very cool
What I don't see the need for is sequences that basically stay the same forever. For instance, I'm glad I didn't see this in the theater for the first time, because without a fast-forward button during the going-through-the-wormhole scene, I definitely would have walked out of the movie. I mean there's art and there's realism, but then there's nonsense. Us seeing him going through every second of the wormhole was like filming every second of time from the monkey's to the space ship. Kubrick had the sense to skip over all that, why couldn't he find a way to show how long it was without actually showing it (like in Contact for example). I kept thinking, "Ok. Going through a wormhole is very weird. Let's move on." I felt the same with the intro screen, and intermission screen. The other "slow parts" I didn't mind. They seemed to have a purpose.
I also feel a little embarrassed for not understanding what happened at the end. I would either blame myself or the cinematography, I'm not sure. I thought Dave looked and saw another man in the room - an old man - and he watched him in bed, at the table, etc. Then there was this baby in a bubble that came from who knew where. Needless to say, once I figured out what was supposed to be happening there (not what it all meant, but just what was literally happening), it made a little more sense. Just a little.
And yes, I wouldn't recommend this to a kid. To a kid in 1968, the space stuff might be interesting, but not to an average kid in 2001.