It's a movie that I can't compare with anything else I have seen in my life...

Rating: 6/10 (30 June 2009)

2001: a space odyssey.
For a long time, I had this movie on my computer and refrained from watching it. I'm not really sure why, because people close to me kept saying it's a great film and that I should watch it right away.
And so I finally watched it yesterday.
The movie is confusing, to say the least. The first 3 minutes are completely dark, with a strange sound that reappears throughout the movie.
We then switch to a prehistoric planet, where apes and other animals are the (so it seems) only inhabitants. We see how they slowly, yet surely become smarter and learn some primitive techniques. Ironic enough, the scene ends when an ape kills another one using a bone. I guess the movie wants to tell us that violence is bad? But it is a sad and painful aspect of the (future) human race...
The next story is about a research center (of some sorts) in outer space where a computer, called HAL, operates the whole mission. The research center is going towards Jupiter. The reason is explained in the movie, but it slips my mind as I am writing this. At some point, the computer malfunctions and things go bad.
The final, and most confusing, story is basically a journey into the unknown. You could say that the 'odyssey' part of the movie applies to this last bit. For almost 15 minutes we, the viewers, are exposed to a colorful collection of lights, beams and shapes. At the end of it all, we see one man age in a single, isolated room. In the end, he returns as a fetus, as we see him float above the Earth.
The black monolith, symbolizing evolution (I think), appears in all of these stories. There's probably a deep, philosophical explanation to it all, but I didn't get most of it.
I'm sure this movie is an icon of it's time and yes, it is sometimes well-written and cleverly put together. However, my biggest complaint is that I wouldn't really call this a movie. Now that's not a bad thing, mind you.
2001: a space odyssey is more like a string or chain of events. It's not really a movie as in having a plot, cast and connected scenes. It's a movie that really is unique to anything I have ever seen.
I can understand the high rating, but I wouldn't give it an 8 or higher. I give this movie 6 out of 10 stars, only judged by a movie's point of view.
If I would judge this movie as something else, it would get a higher rating. It certainly is a creative piece of art. But I don't watch a movie for art, I watch it for a movie.