Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the original release of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," a seminal film in motion picture history and one that has awed — and confused — thousands over the years. "2001" is often credited with paving the way for science-fiction films that took a realistic approach to depicting the future. A few decent sci-fi dramas were made before Kubrick's space exploration story — "Forbidden Planet" and "The Incredible Shrinking Man" come to mind — but most were strictly B-movie pulp with low production values. After "2001" came "Silent Running," "Star Wars", "Alien" and "Aliens",...