Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

2001: A Space Odyssey -- should I watch it?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #46
    My wife and I watched 2001 yesterday and we both really liked it. As some have stated here, it's not a movie you might want to watch repeatedly but I would definitely watch it again. I found the ending a little confusing (I looked up a handful of theories online afterward) and some parts did seem to go on longer than necessary, but it didn't seem to be over-long to me. The whole middle segment with HAL was my favorite part, as I expect it would be for most people. The fact that neither of us really knew anything about the movie helped us enjoy it more... the part where HAL figures out how to know what's on the astronauts' minds has got to be one of the best "oh, shit!" moments in all of cinema. I really enjoyed the Stargate segment too. The sound mix, as noted above, was really good. Hearing that fanfare in a theater just can't be beat.

    I got a laugh out of the "instructions" for the anti-gravity toilet. I read online afterward that that was the only intentional "joke" in the movie.

    You would never know that movie was made so many years ago -- the special effects are excellent. I was a bit worried that they might be distractingly cheesy, but I found my self wondering 'how the hell did they do that?' more than once.

    We watched it as a "test run" for the private show we had booked. The BluRay we used for the movie has the original pre-show, post-show and intermission music included, so I set up the show with appropriate cues to turn the stage lights and and house lights down at the right times, and also to close the douser during the music segments. Lucky thing I did that because I didn't realize there was an intermission at first.

    The private show went great and the customer said the movie had never looked or sounded better to him, so that was a big win in my book. He now wants to do another private show of "Gravity" next month.

    Comment


    • #47
      That is a great review Mike. Glad you enjoyed it. While it is fresh in your memory, I would recommend you watch 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

      In this sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a joint American-Soviet expedition is sent to Jupiter to discover what went wrong with the U.S.S. Discovery against a backdrop of growing global tensions. Amongst the mysteries the expedition must explain, are the appearance of a huge black monolith in Jupiter's orbit and the fate of H.A.L.; the Discovery's A.I. computer. Based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke.
      Source: IMDB

      Comment


      • #48
        One problem with 2001, the movie, is that it doesn't explain very much about the monoliths.

        In the novel, Clarke explains it better. The monoliths (there are several) were created by an alien race called "The Firstborn" who have become so advanced that they have transferred their entire, collective, consciousness into computers. The monoliths are the worldly manifestation of those computers. They also function as monitoring stations, looking for intelligent life, and they can also be a transport device as well as a form of communication.

        In the movie, that whole psychedelic scene where you see the unborn child is the way The Firstborn explain their history to David Bowman.

        2001 is definitely one of those movies where it helps to understand it if you read the book.

        Comment

        Working...
        X