2001: A Space Odyssey Recut as a Summer Action Blockbuster
I know there’s still a few people out there who haven’t yet seen the classic Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Now I know this isn’t a horror film in the traditional sense of the word (although it’s one of the best examples of the “Frankenstein Complex” in modern film), but this is a fantastic film. A slow burner if there ever was one, 2001 explores many of the same themes we saw in PROMETHEUS, but the answers aren’t so clear as they were in Scott’s film.
Well the gang over at Film School Rejects (see their YouTube page here) has decided to recut the trailer into a fast-paced, summer action blockbuster. Check out the newly recut trailer after seeing the original trailer:
And now the recut trailer:
What do ya think? I think the original 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a brilliant and pretty damn perfect film as it it, but seeing it re-edited as an action flick is sweet … just don’t remake this classic film. Ever.
Stay Bloody!!!
Well we have been disagreeing a lot lately Scott so before I get into this let me start be reiterating – Zombies HALLOWEEN 1 & 2, SKYLINE, BEHIND THE MASK…. all awesome
Right so now that’s outta the way, 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY suckkkkkks! 2001 is in my opinion the most (underline most!) overrated movie of all time! It is literally about nothing. I read something somewhere which stated that Arthur C Clarke, one of the writers, said something along the lines of, the film wasn’t actually meant to be understood by people. Now take that to mean whatever you like but I personally take that to mean that the film has no meaning other than what its audience ascribes to it. This point of view would certainly explain why there is such a difference of opinion about what is really going on within this film. But this also means I can say that 2001 is about the rise of a sentient Mars Bar disguising in a shiny new all-black wrapper, attempting to stop the genocide of millions of chocolate bars with a giant space fetus. WHAT!? Because this film is not meant to be understood (Arthur C Clarke) this means that my Mars Bar interpretation of the events with 2001 is as equally valid as anyone else’s interpretation.
More than this though the film is so fucking boring. Again nothing happen in it. It just images, upon images, upon images. We don’t need to a 7 minutes of a spaceship docking or 4 minutes of a spaceship flying over a moon or 6 minutes of an establishing shot of a spaceship. Ok I know ALIEN did this (and yes I know Ridley Scott was influenced by 2001) but it was only once and it worked really well in the context of what was happening (which did actually have a point by the way). What about those weird technicolored lights flying towards us for 5 minutes at the end? Yeah I have a better one of those installed on my iTunes, thanks for asking. Ok I will admit that the film look visually appealing and technically I’m sure that it was very impressive for the time… except for that one bit in the middle where it shows a black screen for 5 minutes. That is un-fucking-forgivable! Seriously I thought my VHS player had broke or something and was just about getting ready to get up and fix it when the film came back on and I realised that it was actually meant to be part of the movie.
The characters? What fucking characters? There are no characters in this movie. I know I slated the remake of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET for having easily inter-changeable characters but those guys but those guys were Shakespearian level characters, compaired to the characters (or lack thereof) that we get in 2001. Quite literally anyone of the characters from 2001 could be replaced with any of the other characters and it wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference. I think the most we ever learn about any of the character is that one of them has a daughter, who I think he talks to once (in a very boring and entirely pointless conversation). Well whoopty-fucking-do. The characters could not even be described as cardboard cut outs; they are at best cardboard waiting to be cut out, behind a leaky fridge, in a stale garage somewhere.
All of course with the exception of HAL 9000 who is admittedly one of the best villains ever and was the only interesting thing in the film. I know that HAL was mean to be portrayed as the cold calculating electric monster who goes insane in the depth of space, but I think the question has to be asked… is he really? I mean come’on we learn more about HAL then we do any of the other characters and, moreover, HAL seems to have bucket loads more personality than any of those other characters. HAL is in short the jack sparrow of the 2001 universe. “Dave, Dave stop trying to dismantle me and let’s talk about this over some rum!” So the most interesting thing in the movie is actually off the point (/pointlessness) of the movie… great.
This movie simply put is a special effects piece. Just because this movie was one of the first special effects piece movies, which as I’ve said was undoubtedly a brilliant technical achievement for the time does not mean that it should earn a pass on that fact alone. I have always come down hard on movie which promote style over substance and there is no larger case of it than 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY. Special effects do not make a good movie!!!!!! If this film was released today I genuinely believe that it would be paned and paned hard. And you know what this film was released “today” and it was called AVATAR by James Cameron. AVATAR might have made it big in the box office but critically it was paned hard for pretty much the exact reasons which I’m saying… All style and NO substance! At least AVATAR had a story where stuff happened in it even if it was trite, cliché and predictable, at least things actually happened!
But by far the absolute WORST thing about this movie is how insidious it is. Someone once said to me that it was people like me that were driving down the quality of movies these days and that I should feel ashamed of myself for not being able to appreciate a surreal films which made you think like 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, which meant that I clearly didn’t know what a good movie was. Hang on though I love surreal films that make you think like SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK, MAGNOLIA or AMERICAN BEAUTY and a least those movies have a point. In fact surreal movies which make you think are my favourite type of movies to watch. “Ah but those aren’t Sci Fi films are they?” This douchebag said to me. Well good surreal Sci Fi movies that make you think, let’s see; GATTACA, THE FOUNTAIN, BLADE RUNNER… yeah I’m pretty fucking sure I know what a good movie is, and yeah this guys still maintained that I was an idiot who didn’t.
I was ill when they played this in my media studies class so I missed out on watching it as a group. My friend brought round a copy of the film for me to watch so I could join in on the analytical conversation when I returned to class. He was very hyped up about it, telling me how good it was and very eager for me to see it. When my friend returned to pick up the copy of the film he asked me what I thought of it and I told him that I thought it sucked and why I thought it sucked. When I asked him why he thought it was good, he admitted to me that he didn’t know and in fact he agreed with everything that I was saying and the only reason that he’d gone along was because the teacher and the rest of the class had raved about it so much. The unfortunate thing is that I have had loads of conversation like this. Admittedly I have had a few conversation with people who have genuinely liked 2001 but for the most part when I’m talking to people about the movie they will initially start my saying the loved it, then I will say that I thought it sucks and why it sucks and then they will agree with me. When I ask them why they say love the usual answer is that “Well everyone else says they love it and I don’t want to go against popular opinion.”
This is such a bullshit answer! The thing is though I can see why people give this answer. When I finally did go back to my media studies class and offered my opinions on the film I was slammed and slammed hard for disliking it by everyone including the teacher. Someone even said to me “Why are you doing a media studies course if you don’t like 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY?” And this is the problem in a nutshell; either you like 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY and are an intelligent well grounded person or you are don’t like it and are a fucking dumbass who would won’t know a good movie if it hit them in the fact. This is a really difficult position to put people and I can see why people are attracted to siding with the popular choice and I would almost be tempted to go along with this kind of attitude myself, but… FUCK THAT!!! If anyone genuinely likes this movie then that’s fine. I doubt I will ever understand why they like it but I certainly won’t think any less of them because they do. What I do have a problem with is people thinking less of me because I don’t like this movie, that is bullshit. I will NEVER go along with popular opinion just because it’s popular. If I like or dislike something it dosn’t matter whether it’s popular or not I’m gonna give my honest opinion on it and state my legitimate reasoning as to why I think the way I do.
It’s a shame you can’t see the beauty of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The film is about Meaning … THE meaning of it all and everyone is going to have their own answers. Kubrick captured this beautifully. The answers/meaning isn’t spoon-fed to the audience and simply put it’s not a film for everyone.
Everything about this film is beautiful from the cinematography to the music to the message.