The book explains everything

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2002)

Hi,
I highly recommend reading the book for those wanting explanations (and I recommend wanting an explanation) :)
What Stanley Kubrick did was simply film the outward action that occurred throughout the film, without the accompanying narrative in the book. The actual story is not avante garde or mysterious in any way, on the contrary its a straight ahead sci-fi story.
Everything is explained: Why Hal acted as it did, a step-by-step explanation of the end scene, exactly where the Monolith is from and what its for.

I did like this movie because of the cinematography, I thought it was gorgeous, but I don't know if I accept leaving out the narrative. It was boring watching 3 hours of visuals. But I do agree I only saw it once in high school and I still remember it to this day because the visuals are very strong.
So for all you hippies out there talking about the "MTV generation who has no attention span" just remember Arthur Clarke must not have an attention span either, since he seemed to prefer an actual story as opposed to a series of fascinating images.