A great classic SF, but not as good as most think

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2001)

Yes, we have HAL, we have aliens, we have interplanetary travel and interesting philosophy on what it is to be human. But the tunnel sequence with lots of colours is just played out *waaaaaay* too long. The only way you could enjoy it is to be stoned; it just raises the irritation level way too much. Although we got the theme for the computer game Elite out of the space docking sequence, that's about the only thing that had going for it too. To be a truly great movie they should have slashed these sequences by about 2/3rds, and then they could have added some of the better parts of the book they ended up leaving out. Read the book instead.