A qualified success

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2005)

Recently I viewed this movie again. Although the story becomes muddled starting with the Jupiter and beyond sequence, nevertheless the movie deserves praise for its special effects and its attempt to delve into the origins of man. And although the story has little action and sparse dialog, it nevertheless succeeds in engaging the audience's attention and maintaining a certain level of suspense, at least for the majority of the film. The problem is that the film ends not with a bang but with a thud. What starts off as being intriguing and at times almost sublime ends in a quagmire of uncertainty as the audience is left wondering what to make of the final scenes. Leaving the audience guessing is not a good way to end a movie and for that reason the movie can be characterized only as a qualified success.
When I first saw this movie years ago, I was so intrigued by the music and special effects that I would have rated it a 10. But, alas, time marches on and so does my taste in movies. Recently I happened to watch this movie again and to my chagrin I found it BORING. What made the movie even more unpalatable was the pretentious and muddled story ... or message ... or cryptic allegory ... or whatever, that left me feeling profoundly annoyed. What the heck is this movie about anyway? I liked the beginning with the actors jumping around in monkey suits screaming at each and fighting and, well, acting a lot like people, but when the movie introduced the obelisk ... and then the space station ... and then the talking computer with an attitude ... and then the astronaut growing old ... and then a baby in a capsule looking at earth ... I knew that somewhere there was a message, but it was a message not received by me because frankly, my dear, I didn't give a hoot. The one character in the movie I liked, in fact the only character in the movie that is worthy of the term "character," was the computer. If the movie had just been about the computer, and how well he ... or she ... or it ... sang "Daisy," I might have liked this movie a lot more. This movie is an example of people getting in the way of a perfectly good story. Let the computer explore space. People have more important things to do.