Space Odyssey

I am not sure where to start. My understanding of the movie suggests that extra-terrestrial life, or power, initiated the intellectual growth of primitive Homo sapiens as when the monolith appeared lined up with two other celestial bodies (I think the sun and Jupiter). In the end this received intelligence leads humans to discover the source of our knowledge; however, the product of human intelligence, the computer, appears to sabotage the mission and prevent humans, collectively (besides Dave), from experiencing contact.
Part of the problem for humans, I believe Stanley Kubrick meant his viewers to understand, is that humans began applying knowledge on tools to help us think. From the beginning humans used the gift of intelligence and invention to make practical tools to assist in everyday life; however, by 2001 we have created a machine that can think like humans, but is still treated like a machine. HAL, a product of human invention, becomes the protagonist in the narrative and must be destroyed. The men meant to lead the investigation on Jupiter have already died, and all that is left of the movie is for Dave to finish what was started, unable to share his experience with other humans.
I do not know what to make of the ending. It seems that the magnetic monoliths are linked to the cycle of life. Besides the assurance by one of the scientists that the monolith on the moon was intentionally buried, there are no signs of life outside of earth in the movie. I began to wonder if "life" was the magnetic power of the matter in space. Or, perhaps, as has been used in movies of the 21st century like Contact, the extra-terrestrial life meant to remain unseen because of the still primitive stages of the human mind. As advanced as we believe ourselves to be we still make mistakes with the knowledge we have, like making man-killing computers, and, therefore, are undeserving of the secrets of the universe.

first post

My first attempt at a personal website, assigned to my film course, so it's going to be mostly about techy sci-fi flicks, go figure.