DwnWthVwls

I remember enjoying the movie as a child but it's been forever. Never read the book. Kinda tempted to watch it now actually.

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I don't got a god complex, you got a simple god...

Oriphiel

Be warned, it's almost three hours long. Frownland would kill me for saying this, but don't be ashamed if you feel the need to fast forward every now and then.

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Nameless

It goes a lot faster if you skip the 20 minutes of blank screen. Those scenes are like having a staring contest with a clock.

Chula Vista

Fast forwarding through 2001 should be a crime. Every second of that movie was meticulously planned and deserves to be savored.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Oriphiel

The real crime is the pretension surrounding the film. If fast forwarding helps someone to watch and get involved with the picture, then I think even Kubrick himself would say "Go for it". After all, the extra depth is still there for those willing to look for and enjoy it.

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Frownland

Does that make you unwilling to enjoy it? The long tracking ****s are fantastic imo, they really add to the spacey aesthetic.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Oriphiel

I think you misinterpreted my comment. I was trying to say that 2001 is the kind of movie that works on different levels, and is a different experience for different people. For the people who like the long and redundant shots/scenes, they're there for the watching. But for those of us who don't get anything out of them, why wouldn't we skip them? It's the same principle as listening to an album; some people like to listen to the songs all at once, as a whole, to get the full experience (especially when the artist intended each song to be played in sequence), while others only regularly listen to the songs they like (especially when each song was created to stand alone). Kubrick gave us an album that (while flawed) has something to say either way; it's meticulously crafted to be played in sequence, but also features meticulously crafted songs that stand firmly on their own. As it is with most of his movies, the choice of how deep you're willing to go is left to each member of the audience, and no one opinion or method is "better" or more "correct" than any other.

I personally found that the depth of the movie was redundant and incredibly unnecessary, and I really do believe that the movie would have benefited from being shortened (as well as having more dialogue and characterization). That doesn't mean that I was unwilling to enjoy it, because I really did give it a fair shot during each scene to have a purpose before I skipped it. Some people don't need or want ten minutes to come to a conclusion about what the director was trying to say with a scene; it only takes us a moment, and dwelling any longer is just not for us. It's just as unreasonable for you to expect me to like incredibly long shots of one action taking place, as it is for me to expect you to like movies where every scene seems to superficially flash by in an instant (ala Michael Bay).

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grindy

Anyone else thinks that the special effects in the monkey scenes have aged worse than the SFX in the others? Obviously they did a great job, but the space scenes just come off as more convincing, even nowadays.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Oriphiel

Definitely. The models and sets throughout the movie are downright gorgeous at times, but the monkey suits didn't impress me at all.

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grindy

The backgrounds done with front projection also bugged me a little. Even more so compared to the incredibly beautiful real shots of those landscapes.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.