Why 2001 is Insanely Overrated in a Nutshell

I agree completely. This movie came out in the late 60s, so I imagine those who saw it stoned or trippin’, or hipsters who liked to spout poetry, probably found it profound. The first couple hours are amazing, and tell an engaging story. Once it’s all psychedelic lights, the movie goes off the rails.

This is a clear case of somebody needing a simple story told to them. This is by far the best ambiguous film ever. It's ambiguous as space is to man. There are key fractal elements for the audience to pick up on, making the interpretations almost infinite.

I don't know where you get your summation that the biggest point was the ending. There's a very poignant theme revealed to us in the beginning sequence that carries over to the final act. There's also an underlying theme that ties primordial apes to modern humans as well.

The ending was most definitely vague but imho it's suppose to be that way because Kubrick has shown us that no matter how far man has advanced technology to reach a bigger Truth he ends up right where he begins. The tensions between cold war Soviet and Western society still shape the space program in this film and the hazards of A.I. are reflected in HAL 9000's traitorous actions and destroying its' masters' mission are part of the continued fact that humanity is far from perfect. As they continue to defy nature they do nothing but subject themselves to new trials and tribulations. The conflict between the Ape tribes in the beginning which was resolved after one Ape discovered technology encapsulates this idea.

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I'd say it's more difficult to keep something completely open to all manner of interpretation and still make it cohere, so that it's more than just a collection of random parts. Kubrick accomplished all of that & more, and did so masterfully & poetically. It was Kubrick's stated purpose to encourage the viewers to discuss & think about the ending, rather than spoon-feeding something pre-digested to his audience, an audience he credited with intelligence & imagination.

you don't understand, it isn't really that ambiguous. Like many others have explained to you here, the "psychedelic" ending represented what Bowman must have experienced in his leap up the evolutionary ladder, just like the ape did thousands of years earlier. The monolith was the catalyst for both.

The old TV show "Lost" is the gold standard for a story that throws a lot of interesting shit at you before having no conclusion. THAT is lazy writing. 2001 is not.

I honestly don't understand how you or anyone can have so much trouble sussing out what's going on in this movie. It's not that complicated. I mean I'm not that smart, so is it some kind of emotional thing that keeps people from getting the basic messages from the end of the film? Of the revelation about there being higher orders of consciousness above what we know? That there may be higher powers in the universe? That life is a cycle of death and rebirth that can somehow be transcended through virtue?

The only thing really left open to interpretation was what exactly would the "space baby" do. But no other movie I have ever seen has taken such a good stab at trying to present these lofty-ass themes... so I don't care. Criticizing that would be like saying the Mona Lisa has too much yellow or some bullshit.

Compare it to the end of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where the grand revelation from these superior beings is... uh... everyone exchanging looks of starry-eyed wonder. Duhhhhhhh.

Anyway, I think people "get" this movie just fine. You're not an idiot. But I do believe that something about its messages (spirituality, maybe?) is so offensive to narcissists that their egos are incapable of processing it, so they attack it without fully knowing why.

Some viewers like movies that inspire the viewer to think and are still discussed 60 years later.

Some viewers like movies that spoon feed the plot with lots of cgi and neat super hero costumes.

I think it's about mankind's progress and ascension. I don't think it's open-ended to the point where it loses all meaning, and in fact I get a lot of meaning out of it.