I always interpreted it as Kubrick trying to give you a feel for how vast even just the solar system is, and how long space travel takes. It’s slow and not much happens for long periods, because travelling to Jupiter is slow and not much happens for long periods.
I agree that doesn’t make it an easy watch, but if you get into the right frame of mind to watch it, it gives you a kind of uneasy existential dread at the vastness of the universe and our inconsequential smallness in it, that very little other sci-fi does.
I always interpreted it as Kubrick trying to give you a feel for how vast even just the solar system is, and how long space travel takes. It’s slow and not much happens for long periods, because travelling to Jupiter is slow and not much happens for long periods.
I agree that doesn’t make it an easy watch, but if you get into the right frame of mind to watch it, it gives you a kind of uneasy existential dread at the vastness of the universe and our inconsequential smallness in it, that very little other sci-fi does.