Beyond Excellence

Rating: 10/10 (21 May 2014)

I'm 23 and finally got around to watching 2001 for the first time last year...I had lent it to a friend who watched it before me and returned it to me along with the complaint that it was the biggest waste of time he'd ever spent.
I didn't hesitate to get it watched and see what the fuss was about and I have never disagreed with someone as much. I absolutely loved it; the cinematography, the music, the (truly) epic-ness, the nostalgic-yet-unaging feel, the tension and unease throughout parts 2 and 3, the mystery and interpretativeness, the depth and the hidden meanings. Silence is used more effectively in 2001 than in any movie I'd ever experienced, the most chilling being when Dave is awaiting HAL's response to open the pod-bay doors. The universe I watched within that movie was more believable than 99% of anything else I'd ever seen.
Never had I seen a movie that seemed so much a form of art.
Everyone needs to see this movie.
I still obsess over it, it has become my favourite sci-fi film, arguably my favourite over ALL genres. I'm constantly at odds trying to persuade my other friends to watch it with me. I'm just awaiting the day I can see it on a big screen the way it was meant to be watched.
(A word of warning though, I can understand why some people would find it boring as there are long moments of panning shots, floating ships and no dialogue. I personally could have watched twice the amount more of it, but that's how art is, some can grasp and appreciate it, others can't.)