4. HAL 9000's Breakdown Is Never Explained
This is another case of a filmmaker not wanting to hold the hand of the audience and guide them through every little detail. One of the main reasons that 2001 is so beloved is everyone can find their own interpretation in its greater cinematic universe for the very reason that Kubrick doesn't explain anything more than the absolute bare necessities of the plot. It's a joy to see a movie that lets the viewer's imagination run amok with the plot. HAL 9000's breakdown makes perfect sense if you think about the nature of an artificial human, which you should if you're ever going to become even slightly invested in the movie. HAL 9000 is ordered to keep the reason for the mission to Jupiter a secret from the other astronauts and his mental troubles stem from being forced to lie since that contradicts his status as perfect. This is where the theme of artificial life becoming more organic than human life is extremely prominent and why it's so important that the astronauts are so dehumanized. Kubrick wanted to depict the cold, uncaring machine gaining sensitive emotions, while the warm, loving humans are turned into machines themselves and he succeeded in every way. The Mission to Jupiter segment is a thought provoking meditation on machines becoming sentient and the reasons behind their gaining of emotions that represents filmmaking at it's finest.
3. The Ending Is Horrible And Makes No Sense At All
I've already talked at
great length about this before but it never hurts to go back over it all again. This criticism is usually reserved for the last 30 minutes of 2001 when Dave goes through the stargate, to the renaissance room and then back to Earth when he is reborn as the starchild. Using the word "horrible" is certainly a very strong way in which to describe the ending and from just the sheer level of technical excellence that is prevalent in the final moments of 2001 that claim is completely debunked. It's one thing to not like the ending but you can't claim it's horrible because the special effects and musical arrangements are some of the best that the screen has ever seen. Saying the ending doesn't make sense is a much better place to start because disproving that takes actual knowledge of the greater themes of the movie and requires total investment from the viewer. I'll admit, when I first saw 2001 I was totally lost at the end but I loved it without being able to explain why. Now that I can explain it I love it so much more than I did upon first viewing. What happens in the final 30 minutes is that the monolith that the crew of the Discovery was sent to retrieve, hovering around Jupiter, transports Dave to a human zoo that was created by the alien race that placed the monoliths on Earth, the moon and Jupiter's atmosphere. The monolith was a beacon that alerted the unseen alien race when humanity had evolved enough to reach the outer limits of space so it could, once again, progress our evolution. This is why Dave is transformed into the starchild, he is the next step in human evolution and is sent back to Earth by the aliens so he can advance humanity even further. In this way, the ending makes total sense and there are many, many different ways in which it can interpreted but I'll leave that for another article.