2001 is its own “Monolith”-majestic, anomalous, indecipherable, and most certainly created by an alien intelligence. Teaming with the great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick set out to compose a film of “mythic grandeur,” and we are happy to report from the other side of the “Star Gate” that he succeeded. Not so much a sci-fi film, though it has the requisite techno-gadgets, as an inquiry into the origins of consciousness, Kubrick's foray into heady mythmaking required a quantum leap in visualization. Between Douglas Trumbull's “split-scan” psychedelia and the wizardry of the revolving Discovery interiors, the visual awe bursts like a supernova. But all this pictorial pyrotechnic was applied in the service of 2001's cosmological probe, keeping it sharply relevant and exhilarating even in 2014. From the furred tool-wielding hominids to the “Star Child,” a transcendental fetus floating through the ether, this evolutionary parable-punctuated by the appearance of each new monolith-encourages a form of visual euphoria. Only HAL 9000's utterance in calm, reassuring tones-“It can only be attributable to human error”-reminds us of our real-world imperfection.