Just watched the first 20 minutes of 2001 again, thought I'd stop by to give my opinion.
So it's not quite as bad as I remember - there are some little details I'd forgotten and thought were quite nice (the way the bone-wielders walk more upright, the monolith arrival scene actually being wonderfully well put together, with the music slowly drowning out the cries of the apes and the otherness of the monolith against the scenery being very jarring in a good way), but there were also all the problems I remember. From the egotistical placement of Kubrick's name with the turn of Alsa Sprach from solemn to triumphant to the really irritating message (humanity was so much better off when we were being eaten by cats and we totes never killed each other before technology lol).
What I'd forgotten, though, was how awful the editing was. Checking IMDB that wasn't Kubrick's job, but the scene transitions/some of the cuts are incredibly jarring and feel out of place, almost rushed (the cuts between the different scenes of apes in particular, and between the different dawns in different places, and of course the famous jump cut). On top of that there are minor niggles - the bone changing rotation in the air, clearly due to a different take, the way Alsa Sprach rudely interrupts the scene of the ape with the bone (which otherwise is very well done, but Alsa Sprach completely undercuts any tension there might be by turning it into a weirdly bombastic affair), the leopard's eyes reflecting light which is clearly meant to indicate inhuman predator but just completely breaks immersion for me and makes me go 'I'm watching a movie, aren't I?'
On to the rest!
55 minutes in now, just got to the start of the Jupiter mission.
So let's get the obvious out of the way - that first docking scene, and the scene at the end with the monolith (and a number of shots of the shuttle flying across the moon to get to the monolith) are amazing. There's no denying that, especially with the parallels in positioning and behaviour to the apes' first encounter with the monolith.
Having said that, just because we liked one well put together ship landing scene doesn't mean we want to see it another two times, equally slowly and with basically the same music. It isn't even a Chekov's gun! Yes, it's cool and accurate, we got that the first time.
And oh god, the way they try and shovel down your throat how it's 'just like it is now but in spaaaaaaaaace' is so gorram irritating. The phone call to home, the business trip, the stewardesses, the Pan-Am ship, the stilted 60s businessman style dialogue - ugh, we get it, they're still human beings, could you find less contrived ways to show us that?
Finished. About half an hour ago, but then I had to go help with the continuing efforts to clear out the morass of liquid mortar, stone, brick and rotting wood that used to be the barn.
So having rewatched it, I -
- stand by my original statements, actually. I was prepared to be overwhelmed, and turn to my younger self and go 'you fool!' but actually if anything time had just distorted and shifted what the bad bits were. So while I'd forgotten how good Hal's voicework was (thank you Douglas Rain) I had also forgotten how many pointless scenes there are, that don't build atmosphere or characterisation and just drag, are simply there to try and make some aesthetic appeal to artistic endeavour (particularly egregious are the numerous shots of people walking around in odd gravity, especially with how lingering they are: while it's nice to see someone get the mechanics right we know that they got it right after the first time, and after that it just feels - pointless).
Overall, I think the issue with it as a film is that (I'm going to devolve into literary metaphors here because my background is more literary) in terms of style it wants to sit somewhere between the gothic curlicues of something Lovecraft-esque and the plain simplicity of Hemingway's prose, and ends up moving away with the strengths of neither and all their weaknesses.
As an adaption, it's even worse. It misses the key revelations about the aliens' motivations, the acting and dialogue is bland and emotionlessly delivered, they don't give HAL any redemption so he becomes another 'lolcrazyrobot', there's none of the ambiguity of the book (the aliens are almost certainly bad in the movie, with the light they're shown in, or we're meant to think they are). Of course, most of 2001 is a setup for the much better 2010, but (for obvious reasons) the movie doesn't manage that.
In verdict: deeply flawed, some very interesting ideas and execution, weighed down with too many attempts to seem 'significant' regardless of their effect on the overall shape of the film.
Might save the Shining for another day, it's looking pretty busy atm.
EDIT: Merged several posts.
