Confused matthew does 2001 a space odyssey

[RJDiogenes]

Apparently, Matthew is not only confused, but he's also a moron with no attention span; and he has all the arrogance of the fundamentally clueless.

Prior to MTV, people actually did have attention spans. I was thinking about this a while back while watching my DVD of Carnival Of Souls, a classic Horror film. It's a very moody movie. Very few young people these days would be able to sit through even five minutes of it (and those of you who can, I salute you ).

We really need more adults making movies these days....

 

[Harvey]

Hey now. I know plenty of people of my parents' generation that found 2001: A Space Odyssey to be extremely boring when they saw it. I disagree with that reaction, but it's not due to young people watching too much MTV that it's caused.

 

[Kegg]

Hey now. I know plenty of people of my parents' generation that found 2001: A Space Odyssey to be extremely boring when they saw it.

Likewise. Including my actual parents. At first they had no idea why I was begging them to let me get the VHS, they'd recalled it as such a tedious and forgettable affair.

Also:

We really need more adults making movies these days....

Hey, it's not like there's an absence of slow, thoughtful contemplative cinema out there. Even in sci-fi. Is this my excuse to mention Moon once more with the slimmest of justifications? Hm. I need to get that DVD and satiate my desire already.

 

[Harvey]

I didn't think Moon was out yet. It's certainly at the top of my list of Blu-Rays I need to add to my collection.

 

[USS Mariner]

Hey now. I know plenty of people of my parents' generation that found 2001: A Space Odyssey to be extremely boring when they saw it. I disagree with that reaction, but it's not due to young people watching too much MTV that it's caused.

Wait..."M.T.V"?

Oh, I think you're referring to the Teenage Douchebag Reality Channel. I've heard tales that they played these things called "music videos."

It was during the dark ages, I hear. They called it the time of Reagan.

 

[Pilot Ace]

Hey, it's not like there's an absence of slow, thoughtful contemplative cinema out there. Even in sci-fi. Is this my excuse to mention Moon once more with the slimmest of justifications? Hm. I need to get that DVD and satiate my desire already.

Moon is definitely great.


I have to roll my eyes at all the expected gushing over 2001 though.

 

[Kegg]

I didn't think Moon was out yet. It's certainly at the top of my list of Blu-Rays I need to add to my collection.

Well, Moon was released today in the UK, so I sort of have no excuse.

Moon is definitely great.


I have to roll my eyes at all the expected gushing over 2001 though.

Interesting viewpoint, you're the first netizen I've met who liked the former but not the latter. I thought Moon was rather consciously referencing and playing with the idea of HAL with GERTY.

 

[USS Mariner]

Hey, it's not like there's an absence of slow, thoughtful contemplative cinema out there. Even in sci-fi. Is this my excuse to mention Moon once more with the slimmest of justifications? Hm. I need to get that DVD and satiate my desire already.

Moon is definitely great.


I have to roll my eyes at all the expected gushing over 2001 though.

It's not gushing from me, mind you. It's amazement at a pathetic excuse for a film review that's stunned a lot of us. This is the same person who did the Matrix Sequel reviews.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

It's pretty clear he had some sort of agenda when he started this, given his frequent use of "Kubrickians" (which he seemed to make up on the spot, and randomly alternated between using "-ians" and "-ites")

I got that feeling too.

 

[USS Mariner]

I didn't think Moon was out yet. It's certainly at the top of my list of Blu-Rays I need to add to my collection.

Well, Moon was released today in the UK, so I sort of have no excuse.

Tell me how that goes. I have to wait till next year for it's release on DVD.

 

[Pilot Ace]

It's not gushing from me, mind you. It's amazement at a pathetic excuse for a film review that's stunned a lot of us. This is the same person who did the Matrix Sequel reviews.

Like I said, I'm largely agreeing with his review of 2001 so far.

And I recall agreeing with his Matrix sequel reviews as well, though I don't remember specific points from them offhand.

This is not to say I always agree with him, but his critiques are usually pretty sound in my opinion.

 

[USS Mariner]

It's pretty clear he had some sort of agenda when he started this, given his frequent use of "Kubrickians" (which he seemed to make up on the spot, and randomly alternated between using "-ians" and "-ites")

I got that feeling too.

I'm pretty sure he stuttered when he started to use the term in the review.

The only way it would have been more obvious is if he had coughed "propaganda" after every other breath.

 

[Pilot Ace]

You guys seem to be ignoring that he prefaced the review by saying he was a huge fan of Kubrick and believed he was one of the best directors of all time (or was it the? I forget).

I believe he's using the term as an equivalent of Trekkie or fanboy of a particular subject.

 

[Morfius]

I've noticed that he uses soundtrack music in the background in his Star Wars prequel reviews and DS9 reviews . . . but not 2001.

 

[USS Mariner]

He flat-out ignores half of the facts (Clarke having co-wrote the script, pretending that the soundtrack to a film isn't part of it's presentation) and some of his descriptions of scenes are flat out wrong.

I've written a similarly blasting review of Trek 09, for example, but I didn't ignore half of the film just for the purpose of baking it look bad (although in retrospect, cutting half of the film wouldn't have been a bad idea.)

 

[Harvey]

Now that I'm actually listening to this review, what a moron. Condemning Kubrick as a writer seems to spit in the face of his writing credits on Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket, or A Clockwork Orange. It also doesn't help that he completely ignores Arthur C. Clarke.

His complaints about the languid pace of the beginning are pedantic and suggest a seriously short attention span. He lauds Kubrick's visual style, and then complains that nothing is happening. He can't even appreciate the Blue Danube docking sequence, although it sure helps his point to play the scene without music (and tries to defend this cheap tactic on his part).

"A movie starts when the plot starts," is such a mind-numbingly stupid observation, especially in the context of a film that is deliberately anti-narrative, that I'm at a loss for words. His reviews of The Matrix sequels were cheeky and entertaining, but even the first film in the series wasn't trying to be anything more than entertainment, so they don't give him much credibility to me.

What a moron.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Hey now. I know plenty of people of my parents' generation that found 2001: A Space Odyssey to be extremely boring when they saw it. I disagree with that reaction, but it's not due to young people watching too much MTV that it's caused.

You're absolutely right. There have always been people with short attention spans, but it's definitely worse since MTV and video games (and I have nothing against the old MTV or video games).

 

[Kelthaz]

I've never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey or seen any of Confused Mathews reviews, so I have no stake in this. But I simply cannot get over the arrogance and elitism of the so called defenders of this movie.

"You don't like this movie? That's because you're too stupid to get it"
"Oh, the reason you don't like this movie is because you're too young and stupid. You grew up on MTV and have ADD. I pity you"

It's a movie people. Just because someone doesn't like the same films as you doesn't mean they're stupid or have ADD. What is it about these hard SF films that get such fierce devotion from fans?

 

[Smiley]

Judged by the same criteria as all other movies, 2001 fails miserably for me. However, I can see that it is meant to provide a different sort of experience. It's not an experience that I enjoy, but I'm happy for those who dig it.

I do recommend that those who don't like the movie give the novel by Clarke a try. The book is extremely well-written, and the ship goes to Saturn instead of Jupiter. If nothing else, it will provide some context for the ending of the movie.

 

[DarylCarpenter]

Matthew was utterly bamboozled by The Lion King - what did everyone expect? The man obviously has no understanding of how films "work" and is so terrified of ambiguity he expects all movies to be neat little exposition-heavy character pieces, in which everything is wrapped up in a neat little package, leaving behind nothing to the viewer's thoughts. I'm not saying that just because I love 2001, although I have a hard time watching it on DVD after seeing it on the big screen. I used to be one of those pretentious defenders, and I guess I still can be from time to time, but I've rolled my eyes at the film's fan base on more than one occasion.

Regardless, I used to have a lot of respect for CM, but started losing it when I realized that, yes, he loves his movies spoon-fed to him. On the agonybooth.com forum someone leaked the transcript of his upcoming No Country For Old Men review, and it was more of the same old, same old. Maybe Matthew is just an internet persona designed to spoof the sort of people he's portraying, but as a serious critic he falls flat on his ass.