Pretentious Nonsense

Rating: 2/10 (20 July 2014)

I have "watched" or sat through this film more than once. Goodness knows why. As at one of the same time it is exceedingly annoying yet also slightly mesmerizing but only because of its pretentiousness.
There are some good special effects, but then again a lot of the fashion is very much 1960's , when the movie was made.
In essence the story is about some strange objects found on earth, "monoliths" and a space ship which is sent to investigate. These "monoliths" -so the picture nonsensically suggests- were on earth when man was still evolving from monkeys and (I later researched) the film suggests these monoliths influenced mankinds development. But that conclusion was not made at all clear in the film.
On the spaceship there is an onboard computer, called "Hal" who turns "rogue" for no apparent reason. Again only after doing some research I learn that the computer went crazy because it could not take being forced to lie to the crew. And/or Hal's behavior shows how we are relying too much on machines, etc.
Then after quite a lot of tedium in the film the main character a spaceman endures some type of psychedelic journey(note this movie was made in the 1960's) when those "trips" were all the rage. He finds himself in a old fashioned bedroom, going through all sorts of transformations of himself until he becomes a fetus headed for earth.
It is this last scene which is the worst failing of the film. As no way can or could the normal viewer have any idea what is meant to be happening. Seems the answer is-wait for it- that the spaceman has been captured by aliens and is going through some type of metamorphosis, only known to the aliens in its purpose. Blah, blah, blah.
Despite some decent effects, music, production designs, et al the film is a total mess. Whatever the maker has said trying to justify this film, the whole thing looks like it was made up as it went along. The film maker believes he knows what the film is about but instead of conveying that to the viewer he causes them to be totally confused by a failure to communicate his vision properly or at all.
And the movie is pretentious in the extreme and shame on all those people who claim this is some type of "masterpiece" . The story itself is wholly ludicrous and only because of a few redeeming features can I award just above the minimum vote:
2/10.