Kubrick's version good. Clarke's version astounding.

Rating: 8/10 (29 February 2004)

kubrick left too much to us on this one...half the people I talk to about it totally misinterpret the last half hour of the movie.
Clarke does a far better job in the book of giving us the right amount of information, and leaving us with exactly the right blanks to fill in for ourselves. this is interesting because the movie and the book were made at the same time. Kubrick wants to leave more to us, but he ends up leaving far too much for us to decipher, and we end up pondering inconsequential questions that distract us from the big picture (Clarke's picture).

It's still a very good movie, though.