2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is a film that was originally released in 1968 by MGM Inc. that both confused and frustrated me. A Sci-fi film set in the future (hence the year in the title), it tells the story of a team of astronauts in space who's ship gets taken over by its computer, Hal-9000. There is much symbolism and many metaphors weaved in throughout the movie, which at the same time impressed me and only further confused me about what was going on in the film.

An element that I was not fond of throughout the story was the pace at which everything seemed to unroll. From my perspective, scenes would drag out for much more time than needed to get the message across, and the introduction seemed like an unnecessary compilation of events that lead to nothing. In retrospect, there was much explained about the themes of the movie within these scenes, but that still does not make something at such a gruelling pace intriguing to watch. This was also an occurrence when the story began to take place in space and all of the scenes seemed over-extended and dull, like in the part when the camera ran along the length of the spacecraft. I appreciate that this was probably a technique used to express the vast and slowness of space, but, once again, it did not make for a very captivating scene.

An aspect of the film that I did enjoy was how they incorporated the character of Hal-9000. Even though the true stars of the film were Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and William Sylvester, my favourite performance by far was that of the computer. I am always intrigued by the idea of a seemingly flawless machine who appears to develop human characteristics, such as emotions, and use them against the humans that initially had control over it. It is an eery yet compelling thing to see human feelings produce slowly inside of a lifeless machine, and Kubrick captured the underlying evil of Hal-9000 perfectly.

I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the sci-fi genre, movies with a twist in the plot, or thought-provoking works of cinema.