2001: A Space Odyssey
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: April 2, 1968 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
3
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterJohn Mahoney
It is, as promised, "a majestic visual experience," quite unlike any film we have ever seen...These details are merely a means employed by Kubrick and his distinguished screenplay collaborator Arthur C. Clarke, to provoke the more limitless imaginings of the mind, to assault the viewer with tantalizing enigmas to force exploration of that personal universe in relation to time and space, meaning and potential. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
Something in its mandarin blankness and balletic vastness, and refusal to trade in the emollient dramatic forms of human interest and human sympathy. Kubrick leaves usual considerations behind with his readiness to imagine a post-human future. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineRob Humanick
The final passages are the most exultant in their taking us beyond ourselves into a wide-eyed state of untarnished possibilities; entirely without words, the film reminds us that, despite how far we’ve come, the real odyssey has only just begun. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
It remains as intelligent and provocative as ever, bearing years of conceptual dreaming. Read full review
100
Total FilmStaff (Not Credited)
Whether you think it's pretentious or profound, you can't deny that Space Odyssey is a significant landmark in the history of cinema. It's also, as the original posters proclaimed, "the ultimate trip..." Read full review
100
The Observer (UK)Mark Kermode
It’s an overpowering experience, awe-inspiringly photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth, groundbreakingly enhanced by Douglas Trumbull. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Fascinated by the technology of movies as much as by the technology of space—it presents film as a fabulous, exciting plaything, reviving Orson Welles's observation that a movie set is "the biggest electric train set a boy ever had." Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
This is the way this ground-breaking monument was meant to be seen: in mind-boggling 70mm. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
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. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
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. Read full review
100
EmpireAngie Errigo
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. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Still the grandest of all science-fiction movies.
100
PremiereStaff (Not Credited)
With 2001, Stanley Kubrick proved that a sci-fi movie could be philosophical rather than pulpy, profound rather than pedantic.
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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. Read full review
100
SalonScott Rosenberg
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. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Maintains its artistic magnificence after more than 30 years. Read full review
90
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
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. Read full review
80
TimeStaff (Not Credited)
Like Space Odyssey itself, the ambiguous ending is at once appropriate and wrong. It guarantees that the film will arouse controversy, but it leaves doubt that the film makers themselves knew precisely what they were flying at. Still, no film to date has come remotely near Odyssey's depiction of the limitless beauty and terror of outer space. In this 2-hr. 40-min. movie, only 47 minutes are taken up with dialogue. The rest of the time is occupied with demanding, brilliant material for the eye and brain. Thus, though it may fail as drama, the movie succeeds as visual art and becomes another irritating, dazzling achievement of Stanley Kubrick, one of the most erratic and original talents in U.S. cinema. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsKathleen Carroll
Kubrick leaves himself wide open to ridicule from the minute he picks up Dr. Floyd’s space investigation of the mysterious monolith...The setting is a technical marvel, but advertising plugs make it a super-commercial and destroy its impact. Read full review
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