If you watch this movie from the perspective of the time in which it was made, then you can appreciate it for what it is - an absolutely spectacular cinematic achievement. The shots of the space station, shuttles and space in general are visually stunning especially if watched on a big screen in 4K and HDR. But, unfortunately it seems that the movie relies heavily just on that - visuals. The story itself drags on forever, and even the docking to the space station or flying out in shuttle takes more than ten minutes. As gorgeous as those shots are, one can get easily bored after watching a ship docking indefinitely. At one point I felt like watching some documentary instead of a Sci-Fi movie. The plot picks up a bit after Hal 9000 turns against the crew, but that is quickly resolved, and then there's a half an hour of (as someone here said) psychedelic scenes which are not properly explained. I could only assume Dave went through some kind of black hole or wormhole and saw his future. The main plot point - the monolith - remained unresolved. It's unknown what it is and does, and who sent it, and you are left wondering why you wasted two and a half hours.
Of course, I went online afterwards to read some interpretations and I guess it makes sense, but the story should have been handled better.
Either way, the fact that this is cinematic achievement still stands regardless of the negative things. And I believe that everyone should watch it at least once in their lifetime. But for me, the movie does not have a re-watch value.
P.S. It bothered me a lot when the astronaut jumped from the shuttle untethered. That was a big mistake. The jump like that would be impossible, he would just float away, never to be seen again.
This is not a typical Christmas movie. Unlike those Hallmark's generic ones, this one is actually heartfelt. But for goodness sake, if you want to include politics and other cultures, do some research before writing a script! I was annoyed through the whole thing. First of all, Yugoslavia did not exist in 1999, it was already fallen apart and divided into separate countries, so the beginning of the movie was absolutely ridiculous. I was also baffled by that catholic cathedral, but at the end they mentioned they were Croatians, so that's fine since majority are catholics there, but there would not be any singing in English that's for sure. And what on earth does KGB or Poland have to do with EX YU? KGB was agency in Soviet Union, there's no connection with Yugoslavia whatsoever, so I guess that moment and the one where Petra blames Poland supposed to be a comic relief, never mind it makes no sense at all. Ema Thompson's pronunciation of Serbo-Croatian is midly said very bad. She spoke my mother tongue and I couldn't understand a word she said. Her accentuation and pronunciation was Russian, she really could've tried a bit more to learn how to properly say those few sentences she had. Emilia, on the other hand, really put an effort into it and spoke everything correctly.
These idiocy put aside, it's a good movie. Emilia is adorable and wonderful as always. Just for her and that twist at the end, I give it 8/10.
