6. It Has Only 30 Minutes Of Real Story
The segment that features HAL 9000 and the spaceship Discovery easily features the most traditional storytelling employed in the movie. For this reason it is often signaled out as the only real storytelling on display because it features significantly more dialogue than any other portion of 2001 and has a clear protagonist vs. antagonist relationship on display. It's true the mission to Jupiter scenes are the most traditional moments but that doesn't make any of the other storytelling less valid, just different. Sometimes people need to open their minds a little to the broader spectrum of ways that film can tell a story. There are three styles that a movie can fulfill it's narrative and they are classical, realist and formalist. The realist style is used heavily in many films in the pantheon of world cinema and frequently features scenes that have no bearing on the narrative arc but they enrich the mood of the film. The formalist style is typically associated with movies that feature characters breaking the fourth wall, like Annie Hall, or movies that have a self aware tone, like Being John Malkovich. The criticism that 2001 only has 30 minutes of real story is best re-phrased to 2001 has 30 minutes of solid classical story and 111 minutes of realist story blended with formalist and classical elements. 99% of mainstream cinema is going to be executed using the classical fashion and for that reason audiences don't know that there are two other ways a movie can be told, which is a real shame because 2001 employs all three of of them fantastically for a more well rounded and wholly cinematic story.