2001: A Space Odyssey







When scanning my new copy of Popular Mechanics fresh from the mailbox, The best science fiction films of all time was main article pasted all over the cover. Suddenly I flipped to the page with my inner nerd excitement flaring out. But it didn't last long as the number one film heavily disappointed me. 2001: A space odyssey. I just couldn't wrap head around why it was such a great movie, With my favorite movies such as Star Wars and Alien in dead last of the list. I decided I would have to see this movie, and now I would completely agree with Popular Mechanics.

The sublime masterpiece of 2001 A Space Odyssey is not counted by what the director Stanley Kubrick did with the movie, but what he decided to leave out. The movie doesn't try hook you with explosions, fight scenes or even true dialogue: the two and a half hour movie doesn't include a single shot to grab your attention. 2001: A Space Odyssey isn’t interested in thrilling us, but rather filling our imaginations with awe. Simply put, it’s more of a piece of artwork than a story. The only time Kubrick even uses dialogue is to explain what's going on when the camera doesn’t, and it is pretty much irrelevant to the plot. Ironically, the only dialogue containing emotion comes from HAL (the supercomputer), as it pleads for its “life'' and sings “Daisy Bell'' (a 1892 song by Harry Dacre). But this is Kubrick’s plan; to create a flowing piece of artwork through special effects and music. The special effects are simply incredible, and it contains one of the most recognizable film scores. It’s hard to imagine that the movie is nearly 50 years old, yet shows no signs of being outdated by any detail. From the voyage through space, to the surface of Jupiter, to the “marble” room, the visuals could be debated as the best of any film.
However, the movie’s strong points could also be considered its weakest. The movie’s snail-like pace is very hard to sit through, and the first piece of dialogue doesn’t occur for 30 minutes. The plot is not even apparent until almost mid-way through the film. The long visual sequences sometimes are a fine line between hypnotic and boring. In the end, there are three unreconciled plot lines related to the monolith, the main character’s aging, and the purpose of the marble room. They are simply left hanging there with unclear, conflicting messages reminiscent of theology and creation. But as Clark (the co-creator of the concept) said in one interview, "If anyone understands it on the first viewing, we've failed in our intention."