I have been waiting a long time to see this movie and decided to force myself to watch it last night so that I would finally commit to making sure I saw it. And what did I think of this grand space epic after it ended?
...I can't find the words.
Literally, there are no small set of words I can find to describe this movie, so I am going to try and use every single adjective that pops into my head.
It was:
Epic, colossal, gigantic, astronomical, monumental, mind-boggling, paranoia-inducing, stomach-churning, brain-melting, mind-fucking, insane, psychotic, bizarre, demented, deranged, surreal, scary, terrifying, jolting, petrifying, traumatic, wonderful, glorious, illustrious, genius, expansive, thought-provoking, maniacal, unhinged, and just downright wild.
I felt a spectrum of emotions while viewing this picture. The artistic vision, the special effects, the camera angles, the cinematography; all of it is just brilliant. But what really makes this movie is the sound. There is no sound in space, so the entire film relies largely on visuals instead of dialogue, and it works incredibly well. The audio comes in and drops off at unexpected moments, leaving a ringing sound in your ears that draws you into the diegetic world of this film. Speaking of the diegetic world, it is huge. I mean, really huge. Possibly one of the biggest "worlds" I have ever seen play out in a movie. The precise attention to detail is insane, the coloration and lighting is spot-on, and the designs for a lot of the futuristic mechanisms are pleasantly surreal eye candy.
The film is told in three parts: The Dawn Of Man (showing early primates), TMA-1 (showing humans interacting onboard a domestic transportational spacecraft and finding a weird artifact buried on another planet), Jupiter Mission (in which a unit of astronauts are sent out to explore Jupiter with the HAL 9000 supercomputer), and Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite (for which it is impossible to give a description). Tying each of these acts together is a mysterious, rectangular object called the monolith, which the conscious beings in each part interact with in turn. As the film goes on, the humans learn more about technology and evolution, as the HAL 9000 computer is becoming disconcerted with how the humans are running the Jupiter mission, and what it may mean for the future. As a result, the human astronauts are equally unsettled by what HAL is truly capable of.
Let me talk about the famous "Stargate Sequence". This is the crown jewel of the entire film. It was insanely terrifying and paranoia-inducing, but also gives the sense of a crazy amusement park ride. It lasts for over six minutes, and kidnaps your consciousness with the unsettling musical score and seizure-inducing visuals. Watch this part of the film (especially when you are high), and your mind will flip itself inside-out.
The act of simply using mere words to describe this film would not be giving it enough credit. 2001: A Space Odyssey is in a category of its own. It is definitely the best film I have seen all summer, and a ride I hope to take again in the future.
Overall Rating: 10/10
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