It was originally titled "A Journey Beyond the Stars", the film was released in April 1968 as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick intended 2001 to be a primarily visual--rather than verbal. 2001 received
mainly negative reviews when it was released--The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael, for one, called it “monumentally unimaginative”.
The mere fact that the film is over 50 years old ... and you might remember a drive in theater in April in 1968 listening through one of those window car speakers, in the luxury of your first used VW... sigh, old age is creeping up like the dawn in the movie's opening.