A piece of art for those with an attention span of more than 10 minutes

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2005)

After reading some of the negative reviews on this movie (there aren't a lot of them, but still) I just felt the sudden urge to poke fun at someone.
A few reviewers keep saying that "sure, I understood it, but it hasn't got a plot". If you think that you didn't understand it, so why do you say you did? The plot may not be as obvious as, say, Apollo 13, and it doesn't just deliver everything on a silver platter, but it's there and it's profound. If you would, for once, pick up a book you could even read the excellent novel of Arthur C. Clark, as it would lend you some clues to the meanings of the movie, but I guess reading is out of the question, right? Something else I noted was that many claims it is "boring, two and a half hours of nothing". Well, it's not aimed for audiences of six-year-olds, or those adults with the attention span of a six-year-old. Like every complicated message it takes a while to carry it across. In fact, every scene in this movie, every moment of every scene, is very meaningful and carries part of the message - including the three-minute of black screen in the beginning of the film. "Oh my God, there's no explosions, no action, nothing... just a black screen. This movie sucks!" As for acting, well, it's perfectly adequate. The scenes on the Discovery are all breath takingly suspenseful, and the acting overall is realistic. For the most part, it hints of the naturalistic American cinema that is to come in the 70s.
The special effects are of course, extremely good for it's time. Certainly, there are no CGI in this movie, as it is made in the 1960s. What is there though, is truly beautiful cinematography with astounding vistas of space. (Space IS empty, you know.) In conclusion, I believe I am for the most part preaching to the already enlightened, but those few of you who will not give this movie the time it takes to bring across it's message I say give it another go, keep an open mind and don't expect the movie to do all the thinking for you. Your brain is quite a large organ and should contain the necessary synapses to think deeper than the surface, read between the lines if you will. Try it. It doesn't hurt.