Firstly, I am not qualified enough to review this particual master-piece so I'll just sum up my thoughts on this movie.
This movie is not just another movie. It re-defined the genre of Science Fiction movies. Stanley Kubrick's best work till date as many of them say. Here is a genius of a director who has directed 16 movies, each of contratsing genres. This movie gives an insight to what happens when man creates a machine and the ill effects it can cause when he is over dependent on it. The movie deals with a host of other things too, ranging from Human evolution, spiritualism, atheism to Artificial Intelligence. This comes as a book-movie collaboration, the author of the book being Arthur C Clarke.
The very opening sequence castes a spell on you as you watch the barren deserts of some continent that is not mentioned, awestruck. The "Evolution" episode is very interesting with 2 groups of apes fighting each other and from there on it's a wonderful journey, the journey of a man from an ape to a space traveller. It was after this movie that the scientists decided to set out on a mission to moon and they also thanked Kubrick for having inspired them.
I don't want to reveal the plot so I'll just stick to the basic idea of the movie. It urges human beings to THINK before doing things. It urges people to ask questions. How? Why? What? etc. It conveys the basic idea that people must not blindly do things for the heck of it. As we ask all sorts of questions, we learn more and hence we EVOLVE. Moreover it stresses the fact that over-dependance on machines can be very harmful and also life threatening, as in the case of this movie.
The use of realistic lighting, natural sound effects are the hallmarks of this movie. This was made in 1968 and not a single director in the world, till date has re created something remotely close to Space Odyssey. No wonder it fetched an Oscar for it's special effects, handled by Kubrick himself. The backgroud score is just the awesome. Most of you might have heard it. It's the space zathura music.
Another interesting feature of this movie is that there are no dialogues in the first 25 minutes and the last 23 minutes of the movie. The movie is driven solely by the special effects and the visual brilliance. This movie is a strict no-no for fan boy movie lovers who drool over sound effects, gravity defying stunts and the likes. So stay away as this is not your cup of tea.
Never in a movie have we seen a machine having a great screen presence. A remorseless machine at that.
An important note before watching the movie: Be prepared to watch something completely out of the box. Do not expect some high class fancy stuffs as in the case of other ordinary movies. Tune your mind to something entirely unique and different. Fasten your belts and enjoy the marvellous ride.
PS:
1.If you understood the movie "completely" after the first viewing, you are a genius
2.The chances of ps 1 happening is as bleak as Derby County winning the Premier League :)
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Suda