Sunday 13 December 2009

2001: An Odyssey of the Emperor's New Clothes


For much of my life, I have harboured the view that 2001:A Space Odyssey must be a good movie. After all, it's ranked pretty high on the American Film Insitute's list of greatest American movies, and every self-respecting critic lauds it as one of the greatest movies of all time. I beg to differ.

I have just wasted 141 minutes of my life watching this movie, and it makes no sense to me. Okay, I could sit down and try to interpret it and come up with some high-minded intellectual-sounding jargon as many have done before, but I will be true to myself here. That little emperor's walking about in his birthday suit. The movie is long, boring, and way too arty for its own good.

To say that 2001 is slow-moving is an understatement. Call me uncultured, but I like a healthy dose of dialogue in my movies. I'm not particularly enamoured by watching flashing lights and scenery run by my screen for over 20 minutes at a time.

I will not sacrifice another minute commenting on this movie. If you haven't seen it and want to, good luck to you. Just don't say I didn't warn you. This is definitely one for the critics alone...

No comments: