Nice on the eyes, painful on the ears, and WEIRD

Rating: 6/10 (24 October 2008)

I just got done watching the film, I have to say I was extremely disappointed after hearing this hailed as one of the best science fiction films of all time (and often cited as one of the best films ever made overall). The plot felt extremely slow, there are scenes when the music is replaced by various PAINFULLY obnoxious sound effects (such as heavy breathing, machinery humming, white noise background, beeping computers, that extremely strange MOANING space choir, etc) and the whole movie seemed just ODD. So it got me to thinking, would the movie have made some sense or been better had I taken LSD or some other type of drug before watching it? Was the audience in 1968 on massive amounts of drugs, what about the die-hard fans of the film today? The ending in particular was just STRANGE and I was sitting and thinking as hard as I could about WHAT IN THE HELL WAS GOING ON... Is Dave floating through space? If so what is propelling him past all the psychedelic galaxies and colorful lights we see? Is the monolith driving him (because the little pod he's in doesn't look like it would have a powerful thrust to push him to the psychedelic edge of space... So then he finds himself in a room, turns into an old guy, and then turns into a GIANT FLOATING BABY? The main plot section of the film was fairly boring and filled with annoying sound effects though the idea of man versus twisted machine in a sort of race for the monolith was pretty cool I guess (and Hal's cold voice was pretty chilling, except for when he repeats himself OVER AND OVER)...
I mean, I usually like old movies, especially old sci-fi, and I'm usually not too fussy even if the plot is sparse like it was in 2001 but I could barely stomach this one... I felt like I was watching the Alice in Wonderland of Space Movies...
Don't get me wrong, the special effects were ground breaking, everything LOOKED fantastic and what little acting there was was certainly good but much of the film was extremely BIZARRE... It seemed almost intolerable to me...
In short, painful sound effects, boring drawn out plot about evolution mixed with aliens, and a weird, but not good, movie...