if I watched it in '68 I would have been amazed.
You would have been amazed. It was light years beyond everything that had come before.
I was a sophomore in high school and already reading SF all the time anyway.
I was hoping for your comments
As this was your era (like 80s are mine), you must have loved it back then. That is why I thought that if I lived in those days, I would have loved it - I can feel it now - all those images of space, actors moving in "zero gravity", all high tech computers and equipment, like that phone call to earth to speak with his daughter - video call imagined in 1968, amazing. It was so funny when he asked what she wants for Christmas - I want a phone!
Jeez, over 50 years later and nothing changed - kids want phones for Christmas! Hahahaha
I think that that is why those scenes were so stretched in time, plus its the way how Kubrik did his movies.
I said I did not like it, as it didn't get old well, you can see it and for me there were things very frustrating.
However, as a sci-fi movie from 1968, it was amazing.
P.S. What's sophomore ?