a "religious" and mystical sci-fi movie

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2007)

This is an awesome movie.
It is naturalistic as in every act and depiction, great care has been given to proper application of physical laws governing the universe. There is no pretentiousness neither it tries to impress the viewer by the scale or grandeur as we see in most contemporary Sci-Fi movies.
The movie has deep philosophical meanings embedded to it and I think simplicity and naturalism is there for a purpose that is to accentuate philosophical message of the film.
I would agree with the idea that "alien" probes are merely metaphors, markers in time and space representing leaping points in human development.
I did not get the ending scene at first but then when I started to think it all started to come together. I think what Kubrick wanted to say was that it is futile for us to look for aliens in outer space as human beings are already somewhat "alien". However this "alien" in its barest form (unborn human-baby) is intrinsically linked with universe as well. All these views make a climax in the final scene where he asserts that human is a special species as the Earth as a planet is. -a quite "religious" and mystical message indeed-
Another message I have got from the movie is that maybe it is wrong to see technological and scientific advancement as ultimate end-in-itself for human beings as we journey back to Earth even from the point where we are able to achieve inter-stellar space travel.