Unfortunately I feel that Stanley Kubrick is one of the most overrated directors of all time...he was more of a pseudo-intellectual, than an intellectual; continually failing to get to grips with his chosen subject matter, which was often complex and intellectually demanding.
Even projects such as The Shining by Stephen King, fell short of the mark, where the author himself stated that Kubrick didn't grasp the essence of his book.
Also 2001: A Space Odyssey, though visually impressive for the time, was on a narrative level, rather incomprehensible...if one hadn't read the book.
People are under the misapprehension that because a director's work is influential, it is automatically of artistic merit - one only has to look at the embaressingly unsophisticated films of Sam Fuller, to see this.
Having good ideas is not enough, the capacity to express them successfully in an artistic manner, differentiates between mediocrity and genius. 