Hal is a camera eye

Rating: 10/10 (2 April 2020)

I know it's hard to believe right now, because every other movie has a spaceship in it, but when this first came out, there was nothing else like it. It was a new and unfamiliar world, with serious science fiction notions. So it was a pretty impressive thing, and set the standard for sci-fi even beyond the first Star Wars in '77.
I don't believe Kubrick was concerned about the payoff at the end, about the aliens and who made who. I believe he was all about the narrative, and the narrative follows the rule of 3 for who is in control of the story we are watching: the aliens, the humans, or Hal?
The aliens? They are apparently capable of folding space and consciousness. The humans can only lumber along in their big spaceship, and their sibling is Hal, an advanced thinking machine. I believe Hal is the author of the story that unfolds before us. This is underscored by his character being represented by a camera eye. That's the essence of Kubrick.