Excellently filmed, albeit confusing

Rating: 7/10 (1 December 2003)

I finally got around to watching this epic sci-fi movie by Kubrick and while I was completely awed by the camera work and special effects (not many movies from the 1960s have effects that do not look dated in 2003) I was not sure `what happened' at the end.
The early plot with the apes discovering tools, and the evolution of the first tool (a bone hammer) into the `latest' tool (a space ship, and furthermore, a super computer) made sense to me I just did not get what happened when our astronaut arrived in the bedroom/womb/Jupiter.

Also, the supercomputer HAL is wonderfully portrayed and explored. I enjoyed watching HAL develop the ability to rationalize and make complex decisions. Even better was listening to HAL trying to sleaze his way out of being turned off.
All in all, I am glad I stayed with it, and I may try to read the book one of these days