Intelligent, Lavish, Incoherent, Dated.

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2001)

This movie is popularly heralded as a masterpiece, and seen in context of the prevailing technology (released before the first moon landing and a decade before Star Wars) I agree. The projection of the future is largely convincing, space being populated by scientists and technology rather than cyberpunks, laughable humanoid aliens and salvage workers; and the special effects are astounding given that CGI did not exist. The spacecraft are sometimes unconvincing in their flight, but the windows of every shuttle contain scenes of activity, and the Zero-G scenes make Escher-like puzzles as our notions of up and down are given a good testing. The EVA (Extra-vehicular activity) scenes give a reasonable sense of vertigo at the vast void of space and again angles are used that leave a part of the brain scrambling to get a foothold and decide which way is up.
I would temper all of this though and say that the film is a lot less entertaining than its reputation suggests. It is very slow paced and extremely dry. The high-brow soundtrack is more irritating than inviting and you are not encouraged to engage with the action. This is undoubtedly intentional on Kubrick's part, but leads to a cold experience for those versed in the Star Wars -> -> Titan A.E. trend.
The monkey suits are amazing for their year, but comical now, the super-intelligent talking computer outputs its 'hard copy' on punch-cards, and there are many places where somebody has to push a button to open a door, then stand there dumbly waiting for the door to move out of the way. The people of the future would never stand for it!
In summary, if Titan A.E. is Rock and Star Wars is A.O.R, then 2001: A Space Odyssey is some kind of intensely structured cacophonic jazz for symphony orchestra and cathedral organ. In fact, if you can get hold of the overture from the film (not the theme but the rare bit before the credits and again in the intermission), then it's a good indicator of the sensibilities of the makers. The film is slightly more accessible than that, but not a whole lot.
A final criticism is that the whole final segment made no sense to me, and never having dropped acid, wasn't particularly amazing either. Again, for its year and in context, the earth must have moved for the cinemagoers.
The best way to watch this is on a LARGE screen, up close so that your entire field of view is occupied by the screen, and the dated 60s soundtrack (is it even in Stereo let alone THX?) can bowl you over with its sheer volume. I watched it like that last night and when the organ struck up I got a genuine fight-or-flight response.