# 2001: A Space Odyssey turns 50

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2001-a-space-odyssey-turns-50/811723>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 3, 2018, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2001-a-space-odyssey-turns-50/811723 "2018-04-03T15:27:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Silver\_lining](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Silver\_lining](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_lining)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2001-a-space-odyssey-turns-50/811723/41 "2018-04-20T17:03:37Z")

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Love the beginning and last 30 minutes, The middle of the movie could have been better.

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2001-a-space-odyssey-turns-50/811723/42 "2018-04-20T17:23:36Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I saw it at the Cinerama Theater in NYC during the original run. I was psyched – a big-budget SF film! – but was disappointed.
> 
> It’s not that it’s slow – that didn’t bother me. And the visuals were impressive, as was the imagining of life in the future. But the story stunk.
> 
> Seeing it years later, I realized what had happened: Kubrick had set himself up to have a great revelation, but couldn’t come up with one. So he went with flashy graphics and misdirection to hide the face he couldn’t think of anything to say. This replacement of substance with flashy special effects presaged the science fiction of today – Flash Gordon writ large. Before _2001_, special effects were in service to the story. It showed that if you show enough fancy effects, people will love it even if the story is weak.
> 
> _Star Wars_ codified this – it _was_ Flash Gordon – but _2001_ showed Lucas the way. There seems to have been a few intelligent SF films in the past few years, as superhero films took all the flash, allowing for things like _Arrival_ to be made.
> 
> So _2001_ has a lot to answer for. Rewatching it let me understand what was so wrong with it, and why it became such a landmark. But not for me.

Paople have been making special effects based spectacles since [the dawn of cinema](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s), so 2001 is hardly to be “blamed” for the rise of special effects movies. They would have happened anyway, as SFX improved. And I’m not sure what’s wrong with that. Audiences want to be entertained.

Also, your complaints about the story of 2001 are objectively wrong, but **Voyager** and **Stranger** have already addressed that.

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