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I think I've had all the same thoughts about 2001.

However, I'm surprised you got your family to sit through it. I don't know any kids under say 10 who could pay attention long enough. Heck, I don't know many adults that could either these days!

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Saw it in the theater when I was six or eight (not exactly sure which re-release I saw). Loved it, couldn't wait to see it again. Oh, for sure I didn't get most of it. But even as a kid I viewed it as I think Kubrick intended: an experience of sight and sound. Did I "get" the pre-human monolith sequence? No, I was a kid. Psychedelic sequence? Nope, but it sure was pretty. Space baby? "I dunno", said my little skull full of mush. The consequences of an artificial intelligence that is given conflicting objectives, all while placed in a new environment that it might not have been prepared for? Umm, that would be a "no" for that eight year old. I was still a little sad when HAL got unplugged, though.

So I dunno, I'd say it depends on the kid. Might also depend on the era in which it's viewed, because I viewed it shortly after we had first landed on the moon. After forty years of Star Wars, maybe it doesn't seem so cool anymore.

I tried, I couldn't get past 20 minutes. There is absolutely no way my kids (both under 10) could sit through it either.

You might be surprised, my kids loved it.

The _interesting_ 20 minutes are much closer to the end. If you are going to skip most of the movie, skip to the "Jupiter Mission" title card and watch until things get pyschedelic.

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