Were you in the cinema when it came out?

Rating: 9/10 (18 July 2002)

Were you in the cinema when 2001 came out? I was, although just a dozen years old. My father and older brother were thrilled to be going to this movie, and I was sure it was going to be pretty good as well. But of course nothing prepared me for the bigness -- grand music, huge space ship, fantastic light show, and considerable running time.
Well, the point is that I still remember all that, and the cinema I saw 2001 at ("The Oak" on Denman, in Vancouver), and how I had to ask a lot of questions in the end. And how profoundly advanced it was for its time.
The same can not be said for Star Wars or other "special effects" movies (even though Star Wars was one of just two movies I saw twice in the cinema). Special effects do not equal profundity. In fact, my current view is that if a movie is special effects dominated, then it will suck. Why? Because it is so easy to see how fake the effects are...like plastic flowers versus the real thing, fake zero gravity is pretty easy to pick out.
2001 is one of the few sci-fi films that *is* a great movie (I would also include The Matrix). The others are at best creative stories with fancy pictures.
Oh, and for those who find it boring, consider that the original running time of Lawrence of Arabia (released around the same time) was just under FOUR hours! 2001 is a mere 2.5 hours (shorter than The Green Mile).
8/10