![]() ![]() But the astronauts on board the spermatozoa-shaped Discovery One spaceship bound for Jupiter can communicate and watch videos from tablets. Paying passenger space flight was and is still in its infancy and Pan Am is long dead and gone. ![]() Watching “2001” now, I was struck by how modern the graphics still seem, even if the switches and keyboards and mostly-cathode-ray-tube screens give away how dated the film is.īack in 2018, the fiftieth anniversary of its release, writers revisited “2001” to note how much of “the future” it predicted actually came true. There was not much in the way of computer-generated-imagery in the era when computers were all mainframes with less versatility and utility than your average smart phone of today. “The Abyss,” “Terminator 2” and “Jurassic Park” brought us to “Avatar.” “2001” was the breakthrough film that allowed “Star Wars” to come to thrilling life less than a decade later. The new documentary “Jurassic Punk” brings “2001” to mind as well, as it is about the next era of Hollywood effects innovation - the transition from “optical effects” and camera tricks and hand-made models to computer generated effects. So much had to be invented - effects tricks and low-light celluloid camera lenses - so much imagined, extrapolating from our “Space Race” present to thirty-three years into the future. As a teen I devoured books on it and the obsessive eccentric who made it, Stanley Kubrick. It has been analyzed, parsed, investigated and written about more than virtually any other movie of its era. 10/10.One of the duller stretches between the combat sequences and alien life showcase moments of “Avatar: The Way of Water” gave me a few minutes to ponder what other movies produced visuals this stunning, this far beyond the Hollywood state-of-the-art of their era.Īnd that instantly brought to mind “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a landmark of science fiction cinema, a quaint artifact of the 1960s and undeniably one of the most beautiful, majestic films of all time. Stanley Kubrick is one of the very finest film-makers the world has known, and 2001 his finest accomplishment. I'm glad to see that this film is in the IMDB top 100 films, and only wish that it were even higher. ![]() I know that's what most audiences seem to want these days, but Kubrick isn't going to let us off so lightly. ![]() There's no neat resolution, no definitive full stop, because then the audience could stop thinking after the final reel. Kubrick and Clarke have started the task of envisioning it, now it's up to the audience to continue. Yes, the ending is weird and hard to comprehend - but that's the nature of the future. Besides the incredible special effects, camera work and set design, Kubrick also presents the viewer with a lot of food for thought about what it means to be human, and where the human race is going. It is our shame that the year 2001 did not look like the film 2001, not Kubrick's. The film's only notable mistake was the optimism with which it predicted mankind's technological (and social) development. To create such an incredibly detailed vision of the future that 35 years later it is still the best we have is beyond belief - I still can't work out how some of the shots were done. but there it is in 2001, and that's just the start of the journey. Remember that when this film was made, man still hadn't made it out to the moon. The film's greatest strength is in the details. The reason it is slow, and filled with minutae is because the aim was to realistically envision the future of technology (and the past, in the awe inspiring opening scenes). It was so far ahead of its time that humanity still hasn't caught up. This is the film that put the science in "science fiction", and its depiction of space travel and mankind's future remains unsurpassed to this day. Most viewers are able to see the intelligence and sheer virtuosity that went into the making of this epic. Thankfully, those that cannot appreciate Kubrick's accomplishment are still a minority. Finally I understand why most Hollywood productions are so shallow and vacuous - they understand their audience. For anybody to dismiss 2001: A Space Odyssey as "boring" they must have no interest in science, technology, philosophy, history or the art of film-making. Sometimes reading the user comments on IMDB fills me with despair for the species. ![]()
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