I give this a 1 star because ultimately it's not enjoyable. Who can actually watch this movie? Because that's what movies are about. This can come in many shapes and sizes but this movie is unwatchable. I think people confuse it's enjoyably with it's technically achievements. Don't get me wrong, this is one of the most important movies of all time. But is it good? No. It's not good. And anybody who says it is is lying to themselves and either doesn't want to ruin their nerd credit or they want to make their film school teacher happy.
Everything looks great. The special effects are amazing. And in context it's even more stunning. Especially because since it's release directors have cited this movie as an inspiration. And many movies were either made or rose to their potential because of this. This movie was the first legitimate A list sci-fi movie. The story lines are good. But the way the movie is presented is not. Everything goes on for way too long. It's boring as all hell. And when a story line ends or a self indulgence passes and things start to go somewhere we are quickly thrown into another pretension.
This really stinks of sci-fi of the time. Everybody will say that it's artistic or some other crap but when it comes down to it so much of this movie is showing off the special effects. They paid a lot of money for it and they're going to get their money's worth on the screen. But no Kubrick wouldn't do that, he's an artist, right? Well he did it and you were all duped into thinking that a lot more was going on than actually was. This is how sci-fi was at the time and this movie is no different.
No one can pretend that Kubrick wasn't pretentious and self indulgent. His movies are revered as untouchable these days but if you are able to think on your own you'll see that he does so much stuff just for the sake of doing it. He's contrived and disingenuous. He's not story driven, he's counter driven. He's the PT Anderson or Tarantino of his time. They are chalked full of cool things but in the end they aren't good movies. A few are.
This movies biggest problem is that it goes out of it's way to not explain anything. I'm all up for a little ambiguity but this keeps you in the dark, leaving you to guess at best. If it was cut by about half I'd be able to stomach it and could accept it as visual experimentation. But since you are stuck watching so many things repeat over and over not only is the point made but it's driven into the ground and ruins the original effect. Like in the last sequence, after about 30 seconds of trippy patterns the coolness goes away and it gets old, then annoying and then boring. When if it was much shorter the effect would have maintained it's intent. Then we move onto the landscapes and all this repeats. Then he turns old and is reborn as a baby possibly? It's up for interpretation just like the rest of the movie is. Which is a bunch of BS if you ask me. A movie has a story, it's not a fill in the blanks how you want to kind of thing.
I looked up the book and low and behold the plot is explained. I don't know how any of that was supposed to show up on the screen. The whole ending makes sense and is really cool and would have made these things that happened relevant. Don't even give me some crap of saying that this movie is art and that people just don't get it. Do you get it? Can you actually explain this movie? Or are you just guessing? I think the story was there and Kubrick either got caught up in all of the cool stuff or thought that it would be so unconventional to not have it make any sense. I would say he was on drugs but as we all know he claims that he wasn't. So we only have his ego and artistic pretensions to explain this movie.
I know my opinion isn't popular on the internet. It is in real life because I have never met anyone that actually likes this movie. They all say the same things that I said. But it's okay to be yourself and be an individual and not succumb to per pressure to maintain your artistic credit. After all we are just talking about opinions here.
Everything looks great. The special effects are amazing. And in context it's even more stunning. Especially because since it's release directors have cited this movie as an inspiration. And many movies were either made or rose to their potential because of this. This movie was the first legitimate A list sci-fi movie. The story lines are good. But the way the movie is presented is not. Everything goes on for way too long. It's boring as all hell. And when a story line ends or a self indulgence passes and things start to go somewhere we are quickly thrown into another pretension.
This really stinks of sci-fi of the time. Everybody will say that it's artistic or some other crap but when it comes down to it so much of this movie is showing off the special effects. They paid a lot of money for it and they're going to get their money's worth on the screen. But no Kubrick wouldn't do that, he's an artist, right? Well he did it and you were all duped into thinking that a lot more was going on than actually was. This is how sci-fi was at the time and this movie is no different.
No one can pretend that Kubrick wasn't pretentious and self indulgent. His movies are revered as untouchable these days but if you are able to think on your own you'll see that he does so much stuff just for the sake of doing it. He's contrived and disingenuous. He's not story driven, he's counter driven. He's the PT Anderson or Tarantino of his time. They are chalked full of cool things but in the end they aren't good movies. A few are.
This movies biggest problem is that it goes out of it's way to not explain anything. I'm all up for a little ambiguity but this keeps you in the dark, leaving you to guess at best. If it was cut by about half I'd be able to stomach it and could accept it as visual experimentation. But since you are stuck watching so many things repeat over and over not only is the point made but it's driven into the ground and ruins the original effect. Like in the last sequence, after about 30 seconds of trippy patterns the coolness goes away and it gets old, then annoying and then boring. When if it was much shorter the effect would have maintained it's intent. Then we move onto the landscapes and all this repeats. Then he turns old and is reborn as a baby possibly? It's up for interpretation just like the rest of the movie is. Which is a bunch of BS if you ask me. A movie has a story, it's not a fill in the blanks how you want to kind of thing.
I looked up the book and low and behold the plot is explained. I don't know how any of that was supposed to show up on the screen. The whole ending makes sense and is really cool and would have made these things that happened relevant. Don't even give me some crap of saying that this movie is art and that people just don't get it. Do you get it? Can you actually explain this movie? Or are you just guessing? I think the story was there and Kubrick either got caught up in all of the cool stuff or thought that it would be so unconventional to not have it make any sense. I would say he was on drugs but as we all know he claims that he wasn't. So we only have his ego and artistic pretensions to explain this movie.
I know my opinion isn't popular on the internet. It is in real life because I have never met anyone that actually likes this movie. They all say the same things that I said. But it's okay to be yourself and be an individual and not succumb to per pressure to maintain your artistic credit. After all we are just talking about opinions here.