An Enigma Wrapped inside of a Riddle!

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2018)

Only seen in Super-70MM. I never ventured Downtown to the Cinerama Music Hall in Detroit. I will attempt to review it here without "spoilers", but there is so much to this movie. It is pretty-much divided into "chapters" as there is the prologue with the apes which appear to be stimulated into intelligence by the mysterious humming artifacts. The future of commercial and exploratory space travel shown with great examples of models and sets that still hold up today, 50 years later. The future of computers to the point of being an intelligent "thinking" life-form with both personality and even paranoia. Everything so carefully thought-out including the spacesuits and equipment. On the negative side, there are long passages of plot exposition and detail that border on the mundane and boring. A puzzling ending that I didn't understand until I read the novel, and now it makes perfect sense to me! Kubrick had one fault in most of his movies, and was that he never cut his scenes for time or continuity, and tended to go on too long. However, when you watch it, you will find that perhaps it is more enjoyable in several "parts". I often pace it for viewing on disc, this way. Still controversial after all these years. The 15 minute "star-trip" is still enjoyable , but my "drug of choice" these days is merely alcohol!