I think the ending of 2001 is really a litmus test on the viewer. It asks whether you can handle a little vagueness and thinking in your movies, or need it all spelled out. Basically should you see art house movies or stick to blockbusters. The whole movie is really an exercise in the moviemaker meme of “show don’t tell”, what little dialog there is in the movie is in the movie is largely tangential to the plot, and the ending takes that to a rather extreme level. But if you’re willing to think about the movies you watch after you watch them it all makes perfectly good sense. My funniest 2001 incident came when I bought the DVD and on the way went to my wife to share my joy of now owning it. She ask “what’s it about” (she’s not a nerd, of any kind really, I married out of clan), which lead to a rather prolonged pause on my part, and finally “I guess you could say evolution”. She still hasn’t watched it.
Yep. Sure is.
It determines whether you can be sucked in by nonsense and loudly proclaim with the rest of the imbeciles of the world: "The Emperor's Clothing is Soooooooo beautiful!"