2001 - Jen Peaslee

There are a few things that set 2001: A Space Odyssey apart from other sci-fi films of the time. For instance, just browsing through the trailers and Wiki pages of films like War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still make it clear that for the most part, the preoccupation of the time was meeting invading alien forces and going to war with them (as some people have pointed out, this reflects upon the fear of Communism that was pervading society during those years). Or, if they weren't going to war with invading forces, then the aliens were coming to deliver some sort of warning about Earth needing to shape up its ways.

2001 is a bit different in this respect, because there really isn't any kind of invading force in this movie. If anything, the largest explicit threat comes from the computer, but that's a man-made problem, not an alien one. In fact, holy muffins, there are no aliens in this movie. There is that weird monolith thing (or...things?), but according to Wikipedia (yeah, that's right) that's an extraterrestrial machine, not an actual alien. The absence of aliens is pretty damn uncommon for a sci-fi flick.

There is another major difference that I felt helped make this movie stand out amongst others, and that's the first section with the monkeys. Which, by the way, was either my favorite or my second-favorite part (tied with the computer drama). I totally could have watched an entire film about monkeys evolving. And it was just so interesting that 2001 started with a look back to our past and making it sci-fi, rather than just starting with a futuristic view of the world.

There is still the idea of a "warning" present in the film, I believe. Or maybe not even a warning, but I did get the sense of a "look at where relying too much on technology/evolution will lead you - murder" message in some parts of the film. But the end makes it seem more like a natural, cyclical progression - starting with the Dawn of Man and ending with a new Dawn of Man - rather than an outright warning. Kind of complicated, though, so I could be way off.