It’s a slightly click-baity title, but as we’re still generating more content for our magazines, this one included, why not?
My Sci-fi unpopular opinion is that 2001: A Space Odyssey is nothing but pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. I’ve tried watching it multiple times and each time I have absolutely no patience for the pointless little scenes which contain little to no depth or meaningful plot, all coalescing towards that 15 minute “journey” through space and series of hallucinations or whatever that are supposed to be deep, shake you to your foundations, and make you re-think the whole human condition.
But it doesn’t. Because it’s just pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. Planet of the Apes was released in the same year and is, on every level, a better Sci-fi movie. It offers mystery, a consistent and engaging plot, relatable characters you actually care about, and asks a lot more questions about the world and our place in it.
This is exactly the problem I also have with Marvel movies. Once you’ve raised the stakes so far it’s impossible to go back without seeming less than your predecessors. It’s why Iron Man worked so damned well as it was a pretty small, personal story… same for most of the early Avengers movies. Ever since Endgame it seems like everyone wants to either make it even bigger still (???) or challenge these people who have saved literally the entire universe with… emotional trauma? I don’t know… I’ve seriously lost interest.
