Day 140: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Movie #89 – 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - 141 min, cert U.

I normally start these reviews with a brief plot summary, but this film is so unfathomable that I’m not sure I can. There seem to be a number of black slabs that lead mankind to explore the Universe. Or something. There’s a section in the middle when a supposedly failsafe supercomputer that’s in control of all aspects of a particular space flight goes wrong and tries to kill everyone on board.

I got to the end of this film and found myself wondering what sort of strange drugs Kubrick was on when he made it. Maybe it makes sense to him, but it certainly doesn’t to me. The first section goes on for far too long as it observes a group of apes at the dawn of Man as they encounter a mysterious black slab and suddenly realise they can use bones to hit each other with. The second section seems to introduce some sort of plot as the HAL9000 supercomputer develops a fault and attempts to terminate the entire crew of its spaceship. Any concept of plot is then abandoned in the final half-hour section which is some sort of bizarre acid-trip where the lone remaining crew member is pulled through some sort of wormhole in space and ends up in a one-room apartment.

Score – 1/10. A load of self-indulgent claptrap.

Next up is Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. An excellent biopic of William Wallace. I’ve no idea how historically accurate it is, but it makes for a great movie.