An Abstract Sensory Adventure Demanding Infinite Contemplation

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2008)

For the record, I only gave this an 8/10 because I personally believe that people way over rate movies on this site which makes the ratings hard to read. Basically an 8 is a 10 on this site and I wish people would vote a little more conservatively. Not every movie can be a 9 or a 10.
But to the movie... this is a post I recently added to message board a few days ago and wanted to make it a comment as well.
I saw this when I was really young, like 10 years old or something, and just wondered what the hell and thought it was stupid. Obviously I was the stupid one. However, I just watched this in 720p Bluray format on my 24 inch computer monitor last night and it blew my mind. I had to come here and lay down a thorough opinionated review.
I had some very mixed feelings about the film. Without a doubt the visual aspects of the entirety of the film, especially for a film from the late 60's, were just stunning. It made me wonder why Star Wars didn't look any better for being made much later (sorta). But I guess that is all just small model sets and floating models held by mono filament so not much changed technology wise in between the two films. I was also impressed by the entire space/time warp scene because computer programs I have today could not create that and have it run so crisply. Other then that, the goofy stewardesses and space shuttles were very fun and interesting.
In terms of audio, I found this film to be a piece of pure genius. The way they cut surrounding sound and focused sound, alternating them, all that jazz, just blew my mind. It was quite eerie at times but I really think it made the film that much better.
In terms of the actual plot and message the movie was trying to provide I become a little confused. Obviously all of these opinions are my own, so I would love to hear any arguments or agreements. I do believe that the monolith was purely metaphorical. It was there as a representation of the advancements of mankind. First it brought about pre-man tools. Then it brought about HAL. Then it brought about time and distant space travel. I think that it was real in the story, but it's actual physical presence was meaningless in the grand scheme of the themes of this film. As stated above, I do think that the warp Dave experiences is a rip through time and space that spat him out somewhere totally different, possibly a different dimension. This aged him incredibly fast, so fast that he could not even realize that it was him moving from the pod to eating at the table and then to death. After that life begins again and that is where you find the floating fetus.
So basically I think that the general theme of the film is that life is totally cyclical. Whether it is earth or not, life begins, evolves, ends, and starts again; we have no idea how it started or why it happens this way nor will we ever. I think my only problem I had with this movie is the entire issue surrounding HAL. I found HAL's part in this movie was over done and the general idea that machines have the potential to outsmart man and/or go haywire is widely known and considered so why focus so much time on it. Obviously technology is going to improve and that was already shown by the fact that they could travel to Jupiter in the first place. I think they just needed something solid for people to sort of "tag" the movie to. The most important parts of the film is the beginning when the primates find the monolith and the end when Dave splits space and time into a new dimension and instantly goes through an entire life process... and then starts again. I just wish that they gave a little bit more clarity in terms of what actually happened with the monolith and with Dave and I feel this could have been done without ruining any of the wonderful aspects of this film. Either way, the film was clearly not meant to have a perfect ending and I think that is what makes it so intriguing and fun to watch.
I hope this helps! Cheers, Randy