What have I just watched????

Rating: 6/10 (20 February 2020)

This movie was beyond me. It had some classic scenes that were obviously very well made, especially considering the time in which it was made. Before the actual moon landings!!! But despite this I got completely lost towards the end. I'm trying to write an honest review of my own thoughts before reading everyone elses to figure out what actually happened.
The opening 2 minutes of darkness was an interesting start, I thought for a while something was wrong with my computer. I could imagine when this first came out it would've turned a few heads. The feeling of being lost in space and the music accompanying it was tense to say the least.
Hearing The Blue Danube was fantastic. To be able to hear this piece of music used in such an epic way. No wonder it became something to be repeated in many other films and shows. So much so I had to google whether this movie even came up with the piece itself. This really exposed my lack of knowledge to see it was composed in the 1800s.
From here the scenes involving the monkeys were awesome. Were those backgrounds hand painted? And were those actors in monkey suits? From here you could tell we were in for a wild ride. I began to think we were going to get a whole story of humanity. The quick development of the monkeys from individuals to tribes was an interesting take. And the introduction of the black rectangle/slab was complete surprise. I especially liked the part when the monkey was tenatively going back and forth trying to touch the slab, little by little. Oh so much tension. Just touch the bloody thing already!
The quick switch here to the 'modern' day was done well and got quite exciting. A story I could follow. As it went on I was intriqued, even up until the cover up story about the slab being on the moon. The music here especially was so intense, I felt like I was about to pop. I could think of a few people especially who would've given up at this point, but I soildered on. Were the monkey scenes actually taking place on the moon millions of years before humans? Were these aliens taking over all the planets? My mind was racing.
Next I was definitely impressed by the number of long scenes filmed with the actors walking up side down, going about their spaceship duties. How on earth did they come up with this sort of film trickery in the 1960's. This no doubt wouldb've blown the original audiences minds. It blew mine.
The robot HAL was creepy and completely untrustworthy. The subtle camera shots to and from the red eye always watching or the circle lens shots giving us HAL's point of view were done very well. However these scenes were also very boring at times. I feel like I'd done well not to skip anything so far. These long drawn out scenes were tense, but without the music they would've been the most boring scenes ever. Men talking five minutes to walk down a hill. So by the time it got to just breathing, I will admit I had to skip the odd 30secs with no apparent huge plot going missing. Until HAL suddenly kills one of the astronauts. WHAT!
From here for me, it went all down hill. It was great to see HAL be taken down. But the last act for me completely lost me and takes my overall rating from a 7 or 8 to 6. There was no solid explanation of the black slabs, and what was going on with the colours/dimensions? I thought he was going to Jupiter? Then the main astronaut ends up in the weird as mental institute looking room (Classic chance for jump scares). Here the man ages in three stages and then bam the rectangle is there again and he turns into a giant floating baby? The graphics were so old school I actually burst out laughing. And what? He then flies to earth and becomes the new alien spieces? I had no idea. Were the black rectangles aliens? Could they turn old men into giant floating babies in bubbles? Who knows?
Overall, great soundtrack, epic opening scenes that are an instant classic and something that was an experience thats for sure. I'm looking forward to reading others' reviews to see if I got anywhere close to understanding this or if others felt the same way. No doubt it would of generated a lot of discussion back in the day. I know I'm curious and a bit on edge.