It's long, nothing much happens, but it's a 'must-see'!

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2004)

A cautionary tale about the power, and limits, of technology and the ultimate nightmare of technology taking over. The monoliths act as 'book ends' in the evolution of man, from the time the first ape-ancestor developed enough imagination to recognise the use of a bone as a tool - in this case a weapon - giving it ascendancy over all other beasts and dominion over our tiny planet, a big fish in a little pond.
By 2001 technology starts to take over and realises that man has outgrown his/her usefulness. The next monolith effectively stands as a marker in man's evolution, and the final 'act' suggests that we need to look somewhere else for the next stage in our development, a tiny fish in a sea of infinity. Have we come as far as we are going to get? As Dave comes face to face with his own mortality, the answer to what lies beyond remains out of reach. The star-child suggests we have come full circle, have travelled as far as man-made technology can take us, and are beginning again.
Was the monolith left by aliens? God? or is it simply a metaphor for the power of the imagination, the acquirement of knowledge/understanding?
The visual effects in this film (produced while moon landings were still a figment of man's imagination) remain stunning, even 35 years later, but even more powerful are the ideas. No sci-fi film since has escaped its shadow. The concepts will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Alien (with its android keeping secrets from the crew and ultimately seeking to destroy them in the effort to complete its mission) and Terminator (machines taking over) series.
Many have found the ending unsatisfying because it doesn't give answers - but would we still be talking about it 35 years later if it had?