This is the second Stanley Kubrick movie I've seen that I didn't enjoy. The first was The Shining, which I found painfully slow and uninteresting. It annoyed me. And it's not because it was bad, but because everyone treats it like a masterpiece. I expected brilliance, tension, something gripping. I got none of that.
And this space movie is no different.
I'll give credit where it's due. The movie is well made. The visuals and cinematography are stunning. The effects and the music are genuinely impressive. You can clearly see how other movies like Star Wars, Interstellar, and Inception took inspiration from it. But that's where the praise ends.
The movie is pointless, painfully slow, and filled with way too many long drawn out shots. The opening title alone takes over four minutes. Four minutes of just music and a black screen. What was the point of that? Then we spend twenty minutes watching a bunch of monkeys in the wilderness. Later, we're stuck with two characters silently eating and watching an expositional video on their tablets for what feels like an eternity.
There are no characters worth mentioning or even remembering. The story goes nowhere, and by the end, it feels like the movie had absolutely nothing to say. I expected this movie to at least have a story, something to hold on to.
I don't think I'll be watching any more of Kubrick's movies. I don't care how highly praised they are. I'm done.