Monkey madness, space ballet and an out of psychotic computer

Rating: 3/10 (4 February 2004)

With 2001 Stanley Kubrick succeeded in merging monkey madness, space ballet and an out of control computer by the use of an odyssey through space and time. What he did not succeed in, was in making a good film. Of course, by the standards of the time (1968) the effects were incredible and so were the monkey costumes (compare them with Planet of The Apes, which is also from 1968), but innovation hardly makes a film great. An interesting plot eventually combined with an intriguing style of filming does and that is where Kubrick went wrong with this one.

The first 15 Minutes of the film (I watched the 139 minute version), entitled The Dawn of Humankind' made up the best part of the movie. I especially liked the ending of that piece, when the music set in, fading into the space part of the film incredibly well. What followed this amazing transition was an amazing piece of space ballet. A real feast for the eyes. Then I guessed the stylish' part was over and the film would begin. I was wrong. In the 1 hour and 40 minutes to come there would be numerous overlong scenes of space ballet that added nothing to the plot and became quite boring over time, as did the whole film. Some of the scenes were quite pointless (in addition to being soundless). The part with the HAL 9000 computer was OK as well, but actually that about sums it up.

There is of course a storyline in this film, and it does connect monkey madness to an out of control computer by means of space ballet, but the way in which it is done just doesn't hold my attention. The space ballet could have been abandoned, because it did not connect monkeys to computer by means of causality but only by means of choice as did the vividly colorful voyage at the end. Sure the cinematography is great and the effects are amazing, but those two things are not the only things that make a movie.

3 out of 10