I'm afraid the movie didn't age well. In 1968 the book was so exciting I stayed up all night to read it. The movie was... well, it was a FIRST. Aside from Star Trek, there were very few realistic SF/space movies. And I liked the book, so... I was loyal to the movie. A lot of others who saw it were like "huh? What did it MEAN?" (they hadn't read the book.) And lots of hippies went to see it for "the light show".

My kids & I watched the movie in the 80's and it put us all to sleep. By that time, Space Movies had become much faster and flashier. 2001 was, um, a Dinosaur.

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"I am happy to report that once again the universe is doing just great, thank you, purring with perfection, ever-changing same as always. Light is still cruising along at 186,000 miles per second, and the expanding universe shows no signs of contracting. At this rate, it won't be long before they'll have to let the photon belt out another notch."
Swami Beyondananda's 2007 State of the Universe address