Review: 2001

I'm sure I must have seen this before, but it's recent release on 4K UHD disc makes it worth a revisit. Sadly, our projector isn't quite capable of 4K - but I'm pleased to report that except for one particularly scene where there's some quite noisy grain in an early scene 2001 looks as fresh and modern as ever.

It was the missus' first viewing and given her usual lack of patience for movies that are lengthy and with ambiguous interpretations I wondered what she'd make of it.  I also saved the story of my father walking out of a 1968 cinema showing on account of it being too boring until afterwards - and gave her the option of pausing the film for a catch up on what was going on.  We only had to stop a few times - and I relied on dim memories of my reading of the book for explanations.

Initial signs were not good as we were faced with a black screen and strains from the soundtrack - the Overture apparently. This was quickly skipped as there was no chance of the missus sitting through that.

Overall, it's held up remarkably well. It's slow and even ponderous - but the imagery remains breathtakingly remarkable in places.  It captures the sheer weirdness and vastness of space in a way that's astonishing given its age.  Truly visionary.

Verdict: Bring your own interpretation to this bona-fide science fiction classic.