New post up which is a film review for 2001 A Space Odyssey..
At the start of the film we are witnessing the birth of man and who they came to be, what we watch is how they find a strange object in the Earth and what effects it has on them. We then move to thousands of years later when space travel is the norm. A Doctor is travelling to the moon on a mission to see what they have discovered. They too find a strange object with powers and different abilities.
Later we see a new mission travelling Jupiter, this shuttle has the high powered computer HAL helping the crew member on their way. HAL is intelligent and tries to control the mission but the crew member get wise to this. Just what will the crew find on Jupiter if indeed they get there and what is the significance of the objects they have already found?
I have to say I have found it very hard trying to write a plot summery for this film as it found it a very strange film indeed and I felt there was a complete lack of story and it was all very disjointed. The few little stories we had were very poorly told and I just could not follow them and to top all this off the ending was absolutely rubbish and both me and hubby had no idea just what was going on.
We did have a few actors in the film but none of them really made a stand out performance. They all came across as wooden. Some of the actors included, Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester and Douglas Rain as the voice of HAL. I felt they did not know where they wanted to take their characters and they gave the impression of reading their lines from the scenery. They were trying to give the impression of being in space and having to walk wearing gravity boots but they made this look awful and they all looked like they have had an accident in their pants and as a result had to walk this way. None of the characters really stood out to me and they were all pretty weak and poor. We never got to see any of them develop as we did not get to know much about them or their past and for me this was disappointing.
This is a very old film and due to this fact the special effects were pretty awful. I suppose they would have looked amazing in 1968 when this film first came out but they would not stand up to even the worst film of modern times. We had a lot of space scenes and they were not the worst effects of the film but they seemed very cheap. The appearance of the space rockets was poor and I am sure there were a few times when I spotted a small piece of wire moving them. The appearance of the planets was quite good and I liked how old they looked compared to the images we have today. The sets were also quite cheaply made and I could not work out what effect they were going for. I imagine from the title of the film they were trying to make them look futuristic but the overall feel which both me and hubby got from them was from the 1960’s.
I had to laugh at some of the costumes, the women looked like they were wearing mushrooms on their heads and it just looked daft, this did give us both a chuckle though. The space suits also looked strange and slightly out of place. The crew did not manage to get the effects right with the appearance of living and walking on a spinning ship. The tried hard but it just did not happen and they slowness they gave was very dull and off putting. The whole film seemed to move so slowly. We got a shot of a ship moving towards the moon and it lasted fro a good 15 minutes, I did at this point go for a cigarette and when I returned it had still not got any closer. I felt this was overly played and this did happen a lot throughout the film. The length of the film could have been reduced to half an hour if these scenes would have been speeded up and maybe I would not have lost interest so much if this had been the case.
The soundtrack for the film was the best part and I found it to be excellent. The music was all orchestral and very powerful. All of the songs used seemed to be known by me already and I was able to place some of them in other shows I had heard them in. The only problem with the soundtrack was that it did not seem to fit. We would have a lovely orchestral piece playing and I could imagine people dancing around on stage to it and not the boring space ship travelling through space that we got. I think this was very badly placed in the film and it happened a lot. There was one track which we heard a few times in the film and I felt it was a good choice and fitted in well. I think the sound track sometimes did help add to the drama of what we were seeing.
I have to talk about the end of the film, I don’t feel I will be giving anything away by doing so as I have no idea what actually happened. It seemed to go so far fetched and unbelievable. We felt there was no story to the end and this was no really very surprising considering the story throughout the film. If anyone does know what the ending was all about then please do feel free to message me and let me know.
I am only reviewing the film so there are no bonus features to speak about. The running time of the film is a whopping 141 minutes and I felt this was way too long and everything seemed so drawn out. The rate is a U but I don’t think children would enjoy this film as there is no real story and they will not be able to work out what is happening. The film can be bought on DVD for just a few pounds but I would advise against wasting money on it.
I am not able to give this film a recommendation and I can only give it 2 stars. I have given both of these stars for the soundtrack although the majority of it did not fit the film. I really would recommend spending your time either watching the grass grow or paint drying instead of watching this film.
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