Review – 2001: A Space Odyssey

As noted in other reviews, I’m not exactly an expert on science fiction films. But my sense is that this particular example is a watershed moment in the history of the genre. The pacing is extremely slow compared with what Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott would be doing with alien contact themes just a few years later, and the big, black slab lacks the inherent drama of great big bendy-toys emerging from gigantic flying saucers or things popping out of eggs, bursting out of chests and the like. But the quiet (and I do mean quiet; except for some occasional Strauss, there’s no music) dignity of director Stanley Kubrick’s somewhat abstract consideration of human contact with ancient alien artifacts somehow lends a believability and a sense of wonder that even Close Encounters never truly achieves. And then of course there’s the legendary end sequence; though I can’t tell you from personal experience, I understand that it’s quite an experience when viewed while on psychoactive drugs. Worth seeing