2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, the dean of sci-fi realism, has a pace that makes Ridley Scott’s methodic Alien look like an 80-minute summer blockbuster. Roughly the first and last quarters of 2001 lack dialogue, and most of the long transitional shots that connect narrative expositions are in slow motion, zero gravity, or both. But for all the wailing and teeth-gnashing this will no doubt cause the sci-fi filmgoer weaned on the Terminator and Matrix franchises, the film’s ever-so-gradual unfolding is one of the things that counts in its favor.

Updated 10/28/2010