Er... In the words of Margaret Thatcher: No. No. No. 2001: A Space Odyssey is most emphatically a masterpiece. In fact, I consider it the greatest science fiction film ever made. I will offer you this one concession: It must be seen in the cinema to be properly appreciated.
From a piece I wrote on my ten favourite science fiction films:
"Some consider this film the greatest science fiction film ever made. Then there are those who are wrong. I will accept no compromise on this: Even if you hate it, Stanley Kubrick’s visionary lightning bolt of a movie is a landmark in cinema. Complaints that it is too long are correct, but only if you watch it on television. This is one film there ought to be a law against watching on television, especially for an initial viewing. It must be seen in the cinema, preferably on a screen the size of the Sahara. On the big screen, 2001 is not one frame too long — even in its dawn of time prologue, where apes discover a mysterious black monolith, and in its even more mysterious, surreal, mind-blowing finale.
In between all this, we get a Strauss-scored flight to the moon, where the same monolith from the dawn of time has been discovered “deliberately buried” (and all that that implies, as Kent Mansley from The Iron Giant would say). Said monolith beams signals to Jupiter, prompting a space flight under the control of the film’s strongest character, supercomputer HAL 9000 (memorably voiced by Douglas Rain). Cinema’s greatest AI villain is less than thrilled when astronaut David Bowman (Keir Dullea) decides to shut him down for being a tad homicidal. Why does HAL go mad? Kubrick is smart enough to keep us guessing. Personally, I think he is making all kinds of complicated statements about the frightening possibility of technology overcoming man, and how — if touched by a higher consciousness (such as HAL contacting the monolith orbiting Jupiter) — technology could leap up the evolutionary food chain, ahead of mankind. A terrifying prospect.
Light years ahead of its time, with a quantum leap in visual effects that laid the groundwork for Star Wars, 2001 was greeted with a surprisingly mixed critical response upon initial release. But revolutionary cinema is often greeted with derision by those who lack the wit to recognise genius. Kubrick’s masterpiece was soon reassessed and rightly recognised as such. Despite slow (but never boring) pacing, spare dialogue, and the rejection of an emotional exploration of all things extra-terrestrial in favour of an intellectual one, 2001 remains a riveting, baffling, endlessly thought-provoking monolith of magnificence. A true cinematic one-off, the likes of which will never be seen again."
More on my favourite sci-fi films here, if you're interested. :)
https://fanfare.pub/my-ten-favourite-sci-fi-films-9280c5c5399