Impressive sight and sound show you're bound to be mesmerized by!

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2009)

It's a very strange and magnificent experience when you're allowed to watch the work of a true genius. This film is one of those experiences that simply transfixes you from the very first minute you start watching until the very last minute, when even the credits have rolled and you're still gawking at the blue screen, unable to believe your good luck. It was made in 1968, but even now in 2009 it still moves viewers and has an urgency, a "now-ness" about it that makes it vibrate deep within your very entrails.
The film is simply too powerful and mesmerizing to describe. There is, of course, the principal and obvious topic of space travel, high technology and missions to the different planets in our galaxy. The villain in the film is, without a doubt, one of the most memorable and loathsome heroes I've ever encountered in a film, and its presence itself is a cry against the insensitivity technology has attributed to man, to a point where our technological advance might actually constitute our eventual demise. And even when there seems to be no plot involved, and the film turns into a surrealistic sight and sound show we are presented with images about the nature of man, about the nature of human existence that weren't there in your head to begin with.
The special effects of the film were ground-breaking in its time. I'm talking about over 40 years ago. Even today, they look excitingly modern and thoroughly believable, which is a feat I can't really say about any other "oldie" I've ever watched. But even though the film is steeped in visual effects from start to finish, the special effects do not over-power or overcompensate the plot; they aid to the viewing experience, concomitantly with the dramatic music, the imagination and innovation and the either abstract or definite pictures to create an explosion of undeniable proportions that, as I've said before, will leave the viewer ecstatic until after the credits have rolled.
This is one of those film experiences where, even though you're not completely sure of what you witnessed, you're absolutely certain you've been moved and you've just seen a masterpiece. I am not a big fan of "oldies", so I had a bit of apprehension before seeing this film. I watched it because everyone seems to rave about it, and now that I've already seen it, I gladly join the ranks of audiences world-wide who praise this as one of the best films EVER made. I highly recommend it to ANYONE!!!!! Rating: 4 stars out of 4!