HUH?

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2001)

Why all the love and admiration for this film? granted, Hal is great, granted that the film has interesting sets and for its time, great visual effects, but...COME ON! as a story, it fails on many levels. the dawn of time sequence is prolonged to the point of distraction, as is the endless sequence towards the end, where, well...this film simply takes to long showing the audience details which mar the true beauty it could have been. like most Kubrick films, this feels hollow and incomplete. then again, maybe that was the point. it is not that people won't understand this film-the overall story is actually too simple for confusion-but rather that one may fall asleep during the film. I have seen this film three times, and each time I notice something new, something that does not need to be there. the first time, it was the score, which was a cheap way out of a bad situation for the films creators. don't get me wrong, I LOVE classical music, but the repetition displayed was overwhelming. again, that was another problem with it. too much of the same old same old. at times it is as if Kubrick wanted nothing more or less than to film but a few scenes in as many ways possible. As science fiction, it is neither a failure nor a success. it just is. as a film, it is just not my cup of tea.