50 years. Timeless. Let's do it again.

[longship]

3. I never saw it as a religious experience.

It was about the sci/tech for me. Yes, much of it highly speculative. However, that's how SciFi has always been rendered. Consider Star Trek and its iconic techno-babble (nevertheless, still the best SciFi from television).

But 2001 made it seem real. No! Space ships do not make thrusting noises in space!!! There are thousands of other elements that Kubrick got absolutely right. (And granted, a few he did not.)

I do not consider Star Wars as proper SciFi. More like speculative fiction that focuses mostly on action Jackson sequences. Dazzle the audience and make sure you throw in a suitable number of clever lines of dialog.