Meg 209

[Oddboy]

That's kinda what I thought, but what was the oblesk thingy doing?
Why did he keep seeing himself in the future?
WTF made him get reborn as a planet sized baby?

So many questions unanswered...

But such a mesmorising film.  Probably the closest I've been to being hypnotised.

[Slippery PD]

Its all about the obelisks.  The obilisks are alien seeds (for want of a better word), placed in positions where man can find them at a point in his technological advance.  Apes find one on earth and use tools, they find one ofn the moon and then the obelisk becomes aparent near jupiter.

The obilisks seem to be a gateway or a two way "radio" to the aliens.

Basically reading between the lines its a story of enlightenment dressed up a a huge obilisk metaphor.  Of course dont ask about 2010 when the obelisk "procreates" with jupiter.  

Yer "I wasnt confused till I just tried to explain it" Slippo

[Tex Hex]

Ah! The obelisks enduce evolution. So perhaps the next stage in human evolution is to become planets! Or summit...

[paulvonscott]

Having sadly having seen all the films and read all the books it's all a bit mundane to me now :)  

I really recommend the original book (get one which includes the original couple of short stories the story is based on, one is called The Sentinel).  But ignore all the sequals (film and book) they just steal the magic away from it.

In the movie Bowman becomes the 'star baby' some enigmatic uber-consciousness by travelling through the jupiter monolith.  Best just to leave it at that really, it's open enough to read into it what you want.  

I.e. anything the creators claim it to mean has probably been thought of later.  But the machine does seem to take humans onto their next stage of development twice, once with the monkey men and again with Bowman.  Who knows what this mysterious force has... etc.

I still love it.  I remember the first time I ever got through it all at about the age of 14.  As a kid I was gutted there were no laser battles and used to turn it off.

Book Spoilers (though they are shite really).

In the further books we realise it's basically just some poxy machine created by some poxy beings that I can't even remember if they turn up at the end.  At this point it seems to be getting confused with Start Trek IV in my head.

In 2010 the monolith proliferates acros jupitor and turns it into a sun so some Jupiterian creepy crawlies can become senitent in just seven days (or your money back).  

In 2061 a copy of Bowmans consciounsess becomes a part of the monolith, as does Hals.  Oh and the bugger about on Haley's comet as well.

By 3001 it's all people flying dragons and cranial implants to advance humanity and Poole comes back from deep space.

I heard Clarke didn't actually write any of the sequals himself, though I'm sure he had his ideas in there.

[Art]

Aren't there a bajillion or so Rendezvous with Rama sequels like that? Come to think of it, what happened to plans to make a film out of that puppy?

[Tu-plang]

Megazine review thread?

[Oddboy]

Okay, I finished reading the Darkie's Mob section so I'll review that bit now:

Exciting stuff.  But they're down to 7 - who are the other two?

Darkie, Shorty, Sarge, Johnson, Flyboy and..?

[Trout]

Bert and Ernie.

They can't be shown in the reprint because the contract with Sesame Street's run out.

Honest.

- Trout

[WoD]

My pennies worth on Waugh; Man it's difficult to get into when it's spaced this far apart.  I might (if I can be bothered) try to read it again in one go when it's finished.

WoD.

[Marbles]

Smiley and Roper.

See the link for a pic of the mag seven

Link: http://www.frothersunite.com/files/marbles/fanboy/imag/darkiesmob/dm_rumour.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.frothersunite.com/files/marbles/fanboy/imag/darkiesmob/dm_rumour.jpg

[Smiley]

2001's a love story:

Apeman falls for alien Monolith.

They drift apart as Apeman grows up into Spaceman.

Spaceman marries abusive Computer, they break up.

Spaceman and Monolith find each other again, get married, book the honeymoon suite, produce a star-baby and live happily ever after.

[Lobo Baggins]

++Smiley and Roper.

See the link for a pic of the mag seven

Link: http://www.frothersunite.com/files/marbles/fanboy/imag/darkiesmob/dm_rumour.jpg++

Oh, no! An unprecidented roll call of characters.

They must all be doomed...