Not as captivating as it once was.

Rating: 8/10 (25 February 2015)

It must have been at least ten or fifteen years since I last saw '2001: a space odyssey', and must say I'm somewhat disappointed this time around. Even though, apparently, the meaning of the film has been discussed endlessly, the story is not all that complicated. Apes are confronted with a perfect object which shoot their development into the human kind. Stanley Kubrick assumes we all know what happened next and moves on, off into space. There, the same perfect object stuns mankind again. Then, finally man (in the form of an astronaut who is on a mission to investigate another case concerning the perfect object) is confronted with the object again, this time in a setting that seems to cut through time and space itself. And then you can still debate a lot of what's been going on, of course... does the object stand for death? Or the limitations of human kind? Or is there a significant circular motion present here? Etc..
The first part of the film I found to be rather cheap and silly; actors in monkey suits, a desert with some okapis, two rival ape gangs, and then, suddenly, that object, and... bloody murder, and mankind is born! Apart from what Kubrick is trying to say (honestly, I'm not sure, but Darwin and - or versus - religion múst have something to do with it), it wasn't all that impressive to me.
The next parts are much better, since the visual virtuosity is at times stunning and the space stations and such look terrific (ranging from 'two steering wheels put together' to a 'robotized spermatozoon', but still). The part with HAL is my favorite (check the swan song), things become pretty eerie and claustrophobic there. Also, the part where Dave 'finds himself finding himself and so on', in rooms that are a mix of very old and futuristic features, is just perfect. One more highlight: when Dave is exercising in his 'treadmill in outer space'.
In all parts, I'm not always happy with the use of classical music, at times it is just to pompous. But, at other times, it works just perfectly, although I find it very hard nót to think about Homer's Osydssey with that one particular theme - Homer Simpson, that is.
I remember my first viewing(s) being (utterly) captivating, but this time around it wasn't always so, especially in the first part. Still, plenty to enjoy and ponder about. The bits with the futuristic foods was quite funny at times, even though gen-tech food is a serious issue - even more so today (Monsanto)!
A small 8 out of 10.
P.s.: The Soviet-Union 'counterpart' movie 'Solyaris' (1972) - I never saw it before about a year ago - has much more emotional appeal on me, as opposed to '2001: a...' being more scientific and aloof.