This movie is a good one to test how intelligent a person really is. Anyone who thinks this movie is too intellectual, too boring, too slow, or any other negative critique, is simply an idiot. Some religious people are probably turned off by the evolution idea. This is perhaps my 2nd most favorite movie ever made. It influenced Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Close Encounters, Aliens, etc. in terms of technical achievement. It and Star Trek (orig. series) influenced the philosophical and intellectual tone of all sci-fi after it until Star Wars, such as Silent Running and Space 1999. All of it is great. I fell in love with the Dawn of Man sequence. It just floors me - it always feels like I'm really there witnessing our ancestors' daily struggles. I love how the Monolith can be interpreted in many ways - is it a symbol of our ingenuity? Is it a probe from an alien civilization? I love the final hyperspace sequence. At first I couldn't tell if it represented a mind trip or a physical trip. It's actually both. I love the Starchild and how it represents our past and future. That's what the movie is all about - where mankind came from, where we are, and where we're headed. If you think the middle section seems slow, it's because daily life IS slow, despite the technology around us. And we ARE becoming more machine-like, while our machines are becoming more life-like. It's happening all around us. I like the conspiracy of HAL's hidden agenda, and if you're observant, note the American flag, symbolizing America's predominance, during Dr. Heywood's briefing about absolute secrecy in the monolith's existence. You see the flag all the time in Kubrick's movies - in The Shining, it frames the scene of the man who explains the sordid history of the hotel to Nicholson. You see it in Full Metal Jacket and Strangelove too - seems to suggest Kubrick's disdain for the country, since he became an expatriate. Anyway, 2001 is not that difficult a movie. It's worth repeated viewing, but I guess some people will never see the truth in high art. 2001 is just about the most perfect movie I ever saw. I haven't even talked about the effects, because that's just too obvious. Another movie that knows what's up with music, light, and the moving image.