2001: A Space Odyssey

This was probably my first sci-fi movie, back in the 1970s. It was controversial for its ambiguous, non-verbal storytelling, but what most people didn't realize is that closed captioning barely existed at the time.

I actually enjoyed the cinematic visual storytelling and the realistic special effects. I understood most of the movie without captions. There were a few parts I wasn't sure about, like when HAL 9000 was talking. All I could see was the glowing red light and the astronauts' expressions, and I was trying to piece together what was actually happening. I figured most of it out after the silent sequence where HAL killed Frank during a spacewalk, cutting his oxygen line and sending him drifting into space. Dave went out to try to recover Frank's body, and when he tried to get back in, HAL locked him out and refused to open the pod bay doors.

Most people dislike this movie for its slow pace. They don't get my experience with it, where the visual storytelling meant more to me than the dialogue ever could.

I kept coming back to the story after that, and eventually picked up the book for the deeper details and conversations I'd missed on screen. Reading it filled in everything I hadn't caught the first time. It was awesome reading. Five stars, easily. It's one of my favorite sci-fi stories.