A exploration of time and space, and mans insignificant part in it all

Rating: 5/10 (11 August 2013)

A lifeless corpse of a film that masquerades itself as one of the greatest SCI FI films of all time, to some poor unlighted individuals that clearly haven't seen planet of the apes (the original of course – remakes are just the sound of Hollywood's brain cells dying) Sometimes in life reputations exceeds reality, and this is none more true than Stanley Kubrick's a space odyssey. Before watching it I was expecting a symphony of cinematic perfection, but unfortunately it did not live up to the hype and hope of my expectations at all! If for some random reason I had a time machine, do you the first thing I would do? No not go back in time and invest in apple and Microsoft, or back in time and warn my younger self not to be a reading fan, unless I wanted to be miserable and constantly heartbroken, but instead to be a glory hunter like most of my friends and just support Manchester United, but instead I would go back in time and un-watch 2001. There are two completely different films within one. The first is an uneventful first 1 and a half hours, full of mundane, over drawn scenes that contribute very little to the tempo of the film, or don't help move the narrative forward. As the film starts off with two conflicting groups' of prehistoric man learning to hunt, until one of the two groups learns to use tools and conquers the other. Then we are propelled into the future when man has perfected space travel, the two events only connected by the appearance of a large slab known as the monolith. But it's not all bad; every cloud has a silver lining. As the second half and particularly the third act is roller-coaster of some thrills, excitement and mystery. *SPOILER*As man venture to the planet Jupiter, aided by the supposedly infallible Hal 9000 the most advance computer man has ever created, but after a malfunction, it goes crazy and upon hearing that the two remaining astronauts - Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, to not be placed into suspended animation, wants to terminate Hal, due to an error. It then out of fear, attempts to kill every person on board the ship.
*SPOILER* The final act is a strange scene, where the one of the astronauts spends the rest of his time in a large room, only to die and to be reborn into a gigantic space baby. But despite a better second half the film still lacks. As the popular saying goes "A team is only as strong as its weakest member" so in this case, despite the film picking up in the second portion, it stills wasn't good enough to off seat the mind numbing beginning. But on the other hand the film is blessed with the most beautiful and mesmerising sound track I have ever heard, that is quite possibly the greatest collections of music in one single film that complements it perfectly. With scores I never knew the origins of but where a staple of everyday life, I was completely unaware that they came from odyssey. It also use of special effects and set designs, far ahead of its time, putting shame to some of today's uninspiring use of poorly created CGI. So from a technical view point it's a phenomenal fleet by Kubrick, but the story still lacks, it raises more questions than it answers, sometimes it works and they say art is subjective but it just didn't work for me in this case.