2001: A Space Odyssey (film) mini-reviews of the film in various issues in 1968, each one slightly more positive than the preceding one; in the final review dated December 27, 1968, the magazine called "2001" "an epic film about the history and future of mankind, brilliantly directed by Stanley Kubrick. The special effects are mindblowing." Pauline Kael called it "a monumentally unimaginative movie", and Stanley Kauffmann of "The New Republic" called it "a film that is so dull, it even dulls our interest in the technical ingenuity for the sake of which Kubrick has allowed it to become dull." Renata Adler of "The New York
2001: A Space Odyssey (film) "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. "Sight & Sound" magazine ranked "2001: A Space Odyssey" sixth in the top ten films of all time in its 2002 and 2012 critics' polls editions; it also tied for second place in the magazine's 2012 directors' poll. In 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by "The Moving Arts Film Journal". In an African desert millions of years ago, a tribe of hominids is driven away from its water hole by a rival tribe. They