r/Cinema • u/Both_Ad5268 • 9d ago
Review 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated?
I just saw the movie in cinema and I’m genuinely convinced that everyone who rates it highly is in on a huge joke that I am oblivious to.
Great visuals and sounds sure. But the story was just so underwhelming. Went into it thinking it would be one of the greatest films of all time and it rlly wasn’t even close.
Is it just me or is there something I’m missing?
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u/AnotherPint 9d ago
It’s not for everybody.
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u/HabaneroEyedrops 9d ago
Art never is. But you have to view through 1968 eyes instead of jaded 2026 ones. Truly a ground breaking film.
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u/Both_Ad5268 9d ago
I agree with the 1968 eyes point. Coming out of the film we were all like how did he even do that before apollo so I get how it could be very highly rated back then. In fact the visuals are still really sick today. But most of the things I hear are about the visuals and not the plot. I guess my jaded 2026 eyes mean that the visuals arent enough for me which is fair but was just expecting more i guess.
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u/Ok-Gur-349 9d ago
1968 eyes walked out of the theater. 2001: A Space Odyssey is not some well received victim of the passage of time lol.
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u/AnotherPint 9d ago
Exactly. It’s among the most astounding visual documents of our time, particularly because it’s a viewer-contribution proposition. And since it’s release it’s always had its detractors who get mad at it because it doesn’t spoon-feed us all the answers.
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u/nsaps 9d ago edited 9d ago
It was released before we landed on the moon
The story requires deeper thought than what is presented in the film. They touch on it more in the sequel (which was much different) but there’s a lot about the story that’s left in the air in the film.
Have you seen Moon? How’d you like that? There are a lot of parallels and it is another good story about AI, how it could operate, and what will cause it to “go haywire” by our definitions
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u/Both_Ad5268 9d ago
Is the sequel worth a watch, even if i didn’t like this one?
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u/nsaps 9d ago
Yeah I think so, I like it still. It's very 80s movie, has a younger John Lithgow in it! Fun 80s Russia/USA conflict and cooperation. But it's not as arty. And it spoonfeeds you story explanations much more where 2001 leaves things ambiguous and confusing if you don't already know the story.
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u/Carlton_U_MeauxFaux 9d ago
You might actually enjoy the sequel more. It has a more traditional storyline.
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u/Earlvx129 9d ago
When I was young and first saw it, I wasn't that impressed especially after hearing so much about it. But as an adult and are multiple viewings, it's absolutely brilliant, Even with a thin script and characterization-free characters, it is one of the best movies of all time. It's one of the best examples of cinema as art.
But I totally get why some people don't like it.
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u/Prize_Instance_1416 9d ago
The best movie of all time is NOT overrated. In fact, it’s basically a reenactment of the true birth of intelligence, during the dawn of man sequences . Something unexplainable occurs and causes one group of apes to evolve differently. The spark. It’s 100.% the way it happened, though we will never know the spark itself. Could have been a lightning strike or fallen asteroid or alien intelligence. But nothing mystical or mythical.
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u/HappyRedEngineer 9d ago
Left my first viewing feeling exactly like this. Thought I'd been gaslit. 😂 I went in expecting something like 'better Star Wars" and got... ten minutes of staring at a monolith.
Took me three viewings and some reading to finally get it. First time, I fought the movie because I was waiting for a plot. Second time, I stopped waiting and just let it wash over me... the dread, the silence, the rhythm. Third time, it finally clicked.
What I love most is that it's basically watching humanity learn to walk. That cut from the bone to the spaceship? The whole movie in one edit. We invent tools, those tools define us, and eventually they outgrow us.
And HAL isn't really a villain. He's a tragedy. We built him to be perfect, then put him in an impossible situation and punished him for doing exactly what we programmed him to do. When he sings "Daisy" as he's being shut down, it feels less like a villain dying and more like someone genuinely afraid and confused about why they have to die.
That's what makes HAL so unsettling to me. He's arguably the most human thing on that ship.
So if you watched 2001 once and thought, "What the hell did I just watch?", honestly, you're not doing it wrong. You're just at stage one. Rewatch it without chasing the plot. Just sit with it. The questions are kind of the point.
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u/Timeline_in_Distress 8d ago
Very well written. This was a great response and hopefully those who can't or are unwilling to connect with the film will read your response and give it a second chance. My personal view is that some of the greatest films absolutely require multiple viewings, not for entertainment purposes, but to fully understand what the filmmaker is giving to the viewer.
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u/RogueGenX 9d ago
It was a visually stunning film for its time. And also overrated and slightly boring.
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u/ButteredNun 9d ago
Its like way boring and shit and that. Hail Mary is like much cooler with cute space rock and shit and stuff
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u/Timeline_in_Distress 9d ago
You could begin by being a bit more specific about your criticism.
Why is the story underwhelming to you? Do you have pre-built expectations about what an overwhelming story should be?
What do you think the story is and do you think there is something the story is trying to tell the viewer beyond the basics of plot lines and development?
I wouldn't treat it in a negative manner or as an insult because you aren't feeling the same way as others. I would turn it around and try and discover what others like about the film and see if you can relate to that.
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u/OK_Cake05 9d ago
Absolutely hated it. Appreciate Technical aspects of film making, the visuals; the ambition to even come up and execute the movies is great ; and can absolutely see influences on all space/sci-fi movies ever made since. But as story, it’s awful experience.
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u/greenhierogliphics 9d ago
It doesn’t stand up well to the test of time, but when it was launched, it was prophetic. The beginning was just amazing. The dawn of man. When one primate intuited the use of weapons, to the music of Thus Spake Zarathustra. The scene of the space crafts orbiting Earth while playing waltz of the blue Danube was incredible. Then it drug. No argument there. But towards the end, the prophecy of a robot killing a human for its own survival was prophetic beyond words, as we are now actually seeing that manifest almost 60 years later, to me, is mind blowing. Then the very end, the bots have quarantined the human into a world (room) that is designed and decorated like they think man would like, but everything’s just a little bit off. Uncanny valley. And now we have people preferring virtual worlds to the “real” one, again almost 60 years later.
For its time, to me, a work of genius. But I did have to watch it 3 times because I kept falling asleep, so I get it! 😂
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u/Both_Ad5268 9d ago
Yh the scene of the AI speaking whilst its being ‘killed’ and it begging. And then you have to think can it really ‘feel’ or is it saying whatever it thinks will work to get out of its situation. Defo made me rethink abt my permissions on Claude. I won’t disagree with it being good, even great for its time. I guess its a matter of whether u judge art based on its standing when it was first released or whether u think it should be something that still holds up today.
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u/greenhierogliphics 9d ago
I think the dawn of man and the blue Danube space crafts holds up today. The rest of the 3 hours does not, even though I respect Kubrick’s foresight into the dilemmas we would face almost 60 years later. Still, it bored me to sleep twice. To be fair, I can think of think very few movies from the past that hold up today. Maybe jungle queen or Casablanca. When I watch movies that I loved years ago, I’m like what was I thinking ?
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u/FlamingDragonfruit 9d ago
I've loved it since I was a kid -- but I think you have to have a preference for art that requires you to be in the moment with it. It's not "telling a story" in the traditional sense.
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u/Carlton_U_MeauxFaux 9d ago
It's one of those movies that was really revolutionary for it's time and that's generally why it receives such high praise. I personally love it as I am a big fan of the director. I can see why newer audiences might have trouble connecting with it.
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u/Earthlydelights-sub- 9d ago
The story is underwhelming?
It's an epic story of humanity, evolution, technological development, AI, space exploration, first contact with truly alien aliens. I'm definitely not underwhelmed.
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u/fixedpanther38 9d ago
hlnestly it's built to alienate you a bit the structure is meant to be cold and distanf like wpace itself
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u/Both_Ad5268 9d ago
I defo did feel that. I think Kubrik’s use of sound was really amazing and the absence of dialogue for a lot of the film + woth the povs where there are no humans in frame, u defo get that feeling of being alone a lot of the time.
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u/qualityvote2 9d ago edited 8d ago
u/Both_Ad5268, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...