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 (novel) a Space Shuttle launch, the adhesive sauces used to keep food firmly in place on one's plate, and even the zero-gravity toilet. Over the course of the novel, several minor characters either appear very briefly or are named only in passing, including other man-apes, spaceflight staff, lunar station security, and "Discovery" crew members. Among the novel's minor characters, some of the more consequential are listed below (often having direct film equivalents, or else being recurring characters in the "Odyssey" novel series). A sequel to the book, entitled "", was published in 1982 and adapted as a motion picture in 1984.