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2001: A Space Odyssey
Metascore
86 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    Only a few films are transcendent, and work upon our minds and imaginations like music or prayer or a vast belittling landscape...Alone among science-fiction movies, 2001 is not concerned with thrilling us, but with inspiring our awe.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    A masterpiece that can still leave you dizzy with wonder. As much as any movie ever made, this visionary science-fiction tale of space travel and first contact with extraterrestrial life is a spellbinding experience.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    100
    Watching this film demands two qualities that are sadly lacking in all but the most mature and sophisticated audiences: patience and a willingness to ponder the meaning of what's transpiring on screen. 2001 is awe inspiring, but it is most definitely not a "thrill ride." It is art, it is a statement, and it is indisputably a cinematic classic.
  4. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    With 2001, Stanley Kubrick proved that a sci-fi movie could be philosophical rather than pulpy, profound rather than pedantic.
    All this publication's reviews
  5. Empire
    Reviewed by: Angie Errigo
    100
    Its faults - sketchy narrative, overblown abstraction - are counterbalanced by its gripping engagement between man and machine, and its rhapsodic wonder at heaven and earth and the infinite beyond.
  6. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    100
    This is the way this ground-breaking monument was meant to be seen: in mind-boggling 70mm.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    100
    Still the grandest of all science-fiction movies.
    All this critic's reviews
  8. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Scott Rosenberg
    100
    Beloved for many different reasons, including its scrupulous scientific accuracy, its vast reach from "The Dawn of Man" to the next stage of human evolution, its unrivaled integration of musical and visual composition, its daring paucity of dialogue and washes of silence, its astonishingly creative psychedelic sequence and its still-gorgeous pre-digital special effects.
  9. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    100
    Maintains its artistic magnificence after more than 30 years.
  10. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    100
    Its special effects are used so seamlessly as part of an overall artistic strategy that, as critic Annette Michelson has pointed out, they don't even register as such, and thus are almost impossible to trivialize, a feat unmatched in movies.
  11. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    90
    A beautiful, confounding picture that had half the audience cheering and the other half snoring. Kubrick clearly means to say something about the dehumanizing effects of technology, but exactly what is hard to say.
  12. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Renata Adler
    60
    The movie is so completely absorbed in its own problems, its use of color and space, its fanatical devotion to science-fiction detail, that its is somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring.
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    40
    A major achievement in cinematography and special effects, 2001 lacks dramatic appeal and only conveys suspense after the halfway mark; Kubrick must receive all the praise - and take all the blame.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    10
    A crackpot Looney Tune, pretentious, abysmally slow, amateurishly acted and, above all, wrong.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 187 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 72
  3. Negative: 13 out of 72
  1. LanceRomance
    10
    The greatest epiphany? That the monolith represents the film screen itself, with its black rectangular appearance. And that the monolith is also depicted as the catalyst for change only encourages the notion that we actually evolve as we watch ourselves on the screen, and furthermore, BECOME what we see. And that's what 2001 is ultimately about; becoming. Constant becoming. Constant becoming through endless mediation. What will become of you when the credits finally roll? I, for one, became a pretentious film critic.… Full Review »
  2. grandpajoe6191
    8
    Acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick's SF masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a conservative movie, asking the audience not to be amazed by the extraordinary visuals but the maturity and growth of a universal subject. The climax of the movie speeds up consistently and precisely with the breath taking cinematography of silence,and in the end....the movie itself becomes the universal subject.… Full Review »
  3. Paxster
    10
    This is movie as art in its fullest and most stunning format. How Kubrick made this look so futuristic in the year of 1968 it beyond me and probably most people on this planet. How much is covered in the short span of this film. It might just be the only film that seems to cover the whole history of the universe in a film. Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, KUBRICK.… Full Review »
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