2001: A Space Odyssey - Brandy

2001: A Space Odyssey

I was always ashamed to admit I had never seen this iconic sci-fi film so I was very excited to finally watch it. All the many, many parodies I've seen of this film have not done it justice and it ranks pretty well right now in my list.

2001 starts out with the predawn of man roaming the earth in the form of our ape-like ancestors. These creatures are generally pretty dull and screech at each other a lot, that is until a mysterious black monolith appears in their camp one night that screeches even better than them. After that, bones suddenly become the "it" item of the season especially when used for bashing other ape's brains.

Explanations of this movie reveal that the monolith is supposed from an advanced alien race who drops these mysterious (loud) stones to help lesser beings evolve. Every time the monolith appears it is rather loud and screechy. Screechy = evolution.

We go from rotating bone to rotating space station. Man has evolved thanks to lots of screeches! And now we create very powerful machines in our own image. With the use of these machines, we have re-discovered the monolith on the moon. Moon bases! Boring debates on space stations! Vegetables in juice box form! The future is exciting! And guess what? Screechy is also exciting! Out dog, Barksley, did jump up and got very alarmed when the monolith feels the sun and starts screaming like a bird in a jet engine.

Jump forward again and man is following the screeches to Jupiter. We come across the infamous HAL 9000 who is an advanced computer system guiding astronauts and the monolith to Jupiter. Only the astronauts don't know that the monolith is on board and HAL has been made to keep it a secret. Because he is always programmed to be truthful but is charged with lying to the men, he goes insane. Duh, that's how robot/AI psychology works. Lies = insane murdering spree.

This sadly bloodless murdering spree leads to some of the most iconic moments after the monolith including HAL's "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave" and the creepy red eye staring mindlessly. Eventually, man must overcome the machines he has built that are threatening to replace him. Dave does by pulling out some old school data things from HAL and proceeds to Jupiter as planned.

At Jupiter, the acid starts flowing. Dave goes through the most acidy acid-trip since space-woodstock. Though this scene was revolutionary for it's time, it looks funnily dated now. Dave "meets" the aliens though they are never shown but only and aging Dave who eventually turns into the space baby? Apparently, space babies are the next evolutionary step for man.

Overall, the movie is extremely sparse on dialog and heavy on music and long, long and even longer shots of models doing things in space. Still, the stylization and futurism is gorgeous and rich in character and environment. I do feel sucked into the space station with low ceilings and the abyss of space facing down HAL. The more I got into this movie, the less I wanted to drink because I wanted to be able to take it all in and appreciate it. Simplicity wins me with this movie but the murderous AI keeps me cheering cause let's face it, everything is better with murdering robots. Now only if HAL had at least once said "Kill All Humans."

Take-Aways:
- loud, mysterious black stones are good
- calm, mysterious red eyes are bad
- zero gravity toilets are really, really complicated
- lying makes you a serial killer
- vibrant colors could mean either drugs or aliens
- Space babies are awesome!

Rating (without alcohol): 4 1/2 Stars
Rating (with alcohol): 3 1/2 Stars
Rating (on drugs): 4 Hits

-Brandy