>these are my thoughts on the movie... the movie began with
>the theme of evolution.. the apes, and how they first learned
>to use tools, and how these tools were used in battle...

Absolutely, I agree with you there. The three acts each reflect great leaps in human development...critical thought, creation of artificial intelligence, discovery of extraterrestrial life, the viewing of a fourth temporal dimension.

>i
>think this is indicative of the fact that humanity has always
>used their best technology for war, and so on and so forth...
>perhaps, HAL represents that bone the apes first used to kill
>each other, as he was a tool.. a piece of technology.. who
>learned from human beings to have malicious intent...

I did actually notice that for the first time this viewing, that the use of tools was cut in with the idea of violence, which takes us in an interesting direction.

>perhaps
>the alien's watching planet earth knew the nature of man.. and
>thus, in the end.. the alien's did not want to establish a
>personal relationship with human beings, but simply wanted to watch and observe

Maybe, but I think you're taking the connection a little far for my tastes, I don't think the two ideas were that explicitly connected. No motives were really suggested for why an alien race didn't seem to offer any direct communication with Dave...though I think their indirect communication speaks volumes.

My interpretation of the final scene, and therefore the movie, is based on the different concepts of dimensions. In the third act, on Dave's journey we see shapes that we associate as three-dimensional space (such as galaxies) represented on rippled two-dimensional planes.

I remember a filmmaker friend of mine talking about a golden ratio of 1:4:9, the squares of the first three integers (1, 2 and 3) and how this 'perfect' ratio was why the black rectangular cube markers were shaped in the way they were. I looked this up on wikipedia because I couldn't remember the exact ratio, and this is what it says:

"These dimensions are the main source of debate regarding the monoliths' simple external design. It is suggested that this number series does not stop at three dimensions, presumably also extending into the fourth and fifth dimensions. What is meant by this is not clear."

So, with that in mind I think what Dave was given by the alien race was an ability to view a fourth temporal (as opposed to spatial) dimension. You notice that he has the ability to see himself at different ages, which is essentially what you'd expect to be able to see if all you could see in a dimension of time is yourself. (Well, not exactly like that, you'd more be like a long undulating worm with your newborn self at one end and your near-corpse at the other, but I think we can agree that that's simply unfilmable and also probably dramatically and aesthetically unnecessary even if it was.)

So? So what, right?

I think there's a narrative here that human development is essentially a mixed blessing, with technology and advancement comes graver reality that we must accept, which is interesting commentary considering this was made during the cold war during the middle of the space race. With tools came violence, with artificial intelligence came inhuman decisions, with envisioning a higher dimension came misery.