I really don't know what to write here. Eh.. it's great to watch :-)

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2000)

It was very interesting to go through some of the reviews here, and a few dedicated websites. You can say a lot about this movie, but NOT that it leaves people indifferent! We get the whole spectrum: people who didn't get it at all and didn't even LOOK for profound meanings. People who desperately try to read anything in it, looking for a way to agree that it is a work of exceptional art. People who consider themselves "smarter than smart" by pointing out that it is all nonsense, that "2001" just relies on pseudo-intellectuals hyping a self-assigned 'profoundness'. People who THINK they "got it", but only expose their limited intellectual capacities... Creationists, post-modernists and agnostics all finding something to their liking. :-)
And now it is my turn and I have to disappoint you: I do NOT have the definitive answer :-) What I DO know is that this movie wandered around in my head for quite a while! Some of its images,atmosphere and sounds are simply *unforgettable*. As someone else said: even if you were clueless, it still was a wonderful *experience* that made you feel out-of-this-world for a few hours. I have no problem admitting that figuring it all out was way over my head. Yeah, a few ideas about "man vs machine", the "birth of civilisation", the "next step of humankind", entered my mind. But the Big Picture? I felt rather stupid when reading all the brilliant and profound interpretations by people with 5 degrees in philosophy
But it was worth it. I felt the emptyness, indifferent silence and immeasurable volume of space like never before. I sincerely questioned whether HAL was _killed_ or simply _shut_down_. I felt a chill down my spine when hearing the disturbing choir-music everytime a monolith was discovered. I got a feel for how absolutely BORING real-life spacetravel is destined to be, opposed to the typical Hollywood depiction. I learned to re-appreciate the authenticity of pre-CGI special effects. And all this from an old VHS copy on my ordinary TV set. I'd pay to see it again on the big screen, I tell you!