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2014 Movies Seen in Theaters

#15 - 2001: A Space Odyssey

When I recently watched my latest American Film Institute movie on the Top 100 list, I was initially excited. #15 - 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick, was my last of his four on the list and surely my memory of being impressed with this movie was going to be validated, right? Definitely not.

 

The film is broken out into four major sections. The first is the Dawn of Man, where we find early hominids foraging for food and learning how to use a tool. The second is TMA-1, which brings us into the future where we encounter a space station and doctors and scientists traveling the moon. The third is the Jupiter Mission where we meet scientists Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) who are pilots traveling on a secret mission with three cryogenic hibernated colleagues and the ship's computer HAL 9000. The final section is Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite where Dr. Bowman leaves his pod to investigate a monolith and gets pulled into a sudden vortex.

On the face of it the movie looks like it is going to be killer and my memory of it was that it was totally awesome. Watching it again, this time not through the easily impressed eyes of a teenager, it felt like a pretentious and pontificating exercise in abstraction by Mr. Kubrick. I was really bored for the majority of this film, and as soon as I got to the fourth section, I was just waiting for it to be over.

That being said, there are quite a few positives in the film. The soundtrack is outstanding and at least attempts to keep you company during an otherwise dull story line, the special effects, given that this was made in 1968, could rival movies 20 years younger or more. It also had some very cool space-y furniture and clothing.

 

However, that doesn't make up for the boredom that is the entire beginning of the film, the end of the movie that feels like it will never, ever end, and the "where in the story am I" portion of TMA-1. Being thrown into the middle of a story with zero context is not something I enjoy on its own, and I enjoy it even less when it is never really given context. If you're going to make it relatively pointless, at least do something interesting (see: cool furniture).

 

The core story, Jupiter, is the only part really worth watching in my opinion. It actually has a story line that is enjoyable, actors that do an extremely good job, and a computer that you are able to feel is the most important character in the film, which is pretty impressive in itself. My prior favorite part of this movie is still my most favorite: Hal singing "Daisy Bell."

 

Cinematic achievements schmeivements. This shouldn't be at #15. For technical reasons, it should be on the list somewhere over 50. But not here.

 

Favorite Quote:

" I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do." - HAL 9000

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

The Wizard of Oz

The Searchers

Psycho

City Lights

#10

Films on Deck

#11

#12

#14

#13

2015 Movies Seen in Theaters

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