what's with all the praise???

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2003)

I saw this movie for the first time yesterday and have to say I'm disappointed. maybe for the time it was a visual breakthrough for film, and maybe it covered uncharted territory, but it's not that good. this should have been a 45 minute movie, but Kubrick (who is overated on most of his movies) turned this into a load of crap. like others, I found myself fast forwarding through most of the movie. I really now can appreciate what Mel Brooks accomplished in Spaceballs.
There are some positives...like when we see HAL reading the lips of dave and peter, that was pretty freaky. the ending sequences are shot beautifully, and for sci-fi I can see how it influenced other films.
But it is SO BORING TO WATCH. if Kubrick had started the movie with a quick scene of the apes and monolith and then gone directly to the scene with the board meeting it would have made this a much better film. it was grossly long and is not a great film overall. there are great aspects, but not as a whole. that is a fallacy of composition. just because some parts are great, it doesn't make the whole thing great.