2001 is history already

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2007)

This movie is 50/50 to my liking. If I skip certain pieces, it will be great (I am not speaking about the running time of the film - no problem with lasting movies). If I watch it all, it is far from being one of the top movies ever. To put it simple: there are good and bad things in this sci-fi.
Good things. Slow pace with clear images of space, spaceships, and fine interiors. A powerful machine-vs.-man duel. A bizarre ending, visually very well executed.
Bad things. Apes' war at the beginning. The apes are quite to the point in "Planet of the Apes" but here it looks like a BBC wildlife production. Besides, the whole evolution representation is like a boring school film on history of mankind. A purely scientific approach to Man. The characters here look like empty shells. Where are souls? It is almost impossible to feel any compassion to these "scientific shadows of man". I don't give a damn if all the human characters die in the end. A kind of background Soviet/American rat race, which had been gone quite a time before the real 2001 ("Aeroflot" logos look out of place here). Triumphant music, that adds some cheap exclamation mark to the production. I have to jump from my seat to get the volume down - what the hell is that? I am not sleeping. To make an impression on the viewer it is not a must for an artist to yell his head off.
Of course, in this one, Mr Stanley Kubrick does not fall as flat as in "A Clockwork Orange" (which is, whatever praise, disgusting), but still, I had expected much more from a top 250 representative before viewing. After watching these two movies, I put off "Full Metal Jacket" and "Lolita" for good, while I suppose, they are also of this "good hits and awkward misses" nature. Perhaps, "A.I." would have been a solid one from head to foot, but it is only "dedicated to...". A fine for "awkward misses" maybe.
Our "Solyaris" is the indisputable winner in this competition and that's marvellous.
5 out of 10. Thank you for attention.