On my mind since:
I watched the first half of this movie 10 or so years ago, fell asleep half way through, but then forgot that I’d only seen half.
My copy’s origin story:
Did I really just watch this on the Disney channel?
Why not until now:
With so many movies to watch, how do you force yourself to go back and watch a movie you remember as being excruciating? Next you’ll be going back to finish watching Wings of Desire!
Movie Review:
Okay, wow, do I have thoughts and feelings about this! I’m one of those people who almost always feels that the book is better than the movie (I’ll try to think of an exception and come back and change this sentence when I think of one. (E – Do Not say Pride and Prejudice 2005!)). I absolutely must insist that this is 100% true here. The book is so good and the movie is slow, boring, and just lacking (but okay, pretty)! I understand what Kubrick was trying to do: convey the vast emptiness of space, build tension, highlight the incredible evolution and also insignificance of humans, caution against technology, showcase his innovations and the beautiful craft available to him at the time, but couldn’t he have done that in under 2.5 hours? Or at least worked in more from the (quite short) book? He cuts out plot points and backstories and replaces those with long minutes of a (granted very well lit) spaceship (model) creeping across empty space, and pod bay doors excruciatingly opening and closing All The Way every single time. Where is the spookily prescient description of what Jupiter might look like inside all the gas? Where was the internal turmoil of HAL? And then most unforgivingly, where was the huge missing plot point to end the movie!?! Sure we got a cute space-baby, but did Kubrick think audiences couldn’t take the dark and stormy ending and so chose ambiguity for a safe way out? If I was Clarke, I’d be pissed. (Big husband points because he really did let me talk through the whole movie all the way to my freak out in the end!) (Finished Nov. 1, 2025)
Payoff (minutes per stars):
149 minutes/2 stars = that’s sitting through 74.5 minutes of movie for each star!
Movie Misc Ratings (Out of 5):
- Meeting expectations (second half of the movie): 0
- Regrets about not finishing the movie before now: 0
- Pissed: 5
- Clarke fan: 5
- Kubrick fan: 2
- Surprised that Clarke had nice things to say about him in the forward of my copy of the book: 4 (How mad can you be at a guy who probably made you a fortune?)
- Special effects considering the year: 5
- Still mad: 4
Bechdel test: Fail
Off The Shelf 
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