Solaris (2002)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Solaris(2002) is a rare example of a remake being every bit as good as it's predecessor, and in some areas exceeding Tarkovsky's 1972 version. Solaris is adapted from Polish author Stanislaw Lems novel. The film centres around Chris Kelvin(George Clooney) a troubled psychologist sent to a distant research space station, orbiting a peculiar planet called Solaris. He's sent there to investigate strange occurrences going on with the crew, as they're experiencing possible delusions of people they loved who've passed away, coming back to life.Steven Soderbergh writes and directs this adaption, which helps give the film a singular vision. Where I feel this film improves upon Tarkovsky's version, is that it explores the emotional isolation and instability of the main character in more detail. Through the duration of the film, you see the toll it takes on Chris mentally and physically, in a way that i never got from the original film. Another aspect I really liked was the cold, strange detachedness that all the characters exhibited. The long pauses during mid conversation, the empty glances, all help to sell the eerie, uncanny atmosphere of the film, at some-points during the film it felt like it was directed by David Lynch.Something the screenplay also does that i found impressive, was that it gave the characters legitimate reasons for their actions. This is something rare in genre films, usually someone does something stupid or unrealistic to further the plot along. Here the characters motives are fully realised, and you can understand and even empathise the choices they make, even if they have negative consequences.Everybody in the film gives fantastic performances. George Clooney has never better. He gives genuine emotional intensity, especially in scenes with Natascha McElhone, who plays his on screen wife Rheya, that has somehow reincarnated aboard the space station. She gives a fantastic, unsettling performance of someone who's unsure of who they really are. Is she a living, breathing organism or a ghost living through someones memories. Jeremy Davies and Viola Davis round out the cast as two survivors aboard the station. They both give outstanding supporting performances, and their their opposing view points act as counter weights to Chris's emotional contradictions.At 1 hour 40 minutes the film is a whole hour shorter then the original film. Whilst this helps to streamline the pacing, it does end up losing some of the more deep philosophical depth Tarkovsky brought to the original. The original film also had better cinematography and set design, the space station felt generic and bland in this film. Where-as Tarkovsky's version was dirty, rundown and felt lived in. These are only a couple of minor gripes that I had with this film. Over-all Solaris(2002) met and exceed my expectations. Solaris is one of the best remakes around. It's a film that has it's own singular vision, that also adds upon the original, rather then just replicating it.

I have both this and Tarkovsky's version of Stanislaw Lem's novel. I found both of them to be somewhat of a trial, although for slightly different reasons. Both are slow, and unless you are easily confused and generally clueless, they don't actually have much of a mystery to them because the secret of the "mystery" is kind of obvious very early on. Where this one fails compared to the 1972 version is that the science fiction is merely a shallow vehicle for a rather stodgy and slow treatment of a doomed romance. There's no actual science in the story at all. It's full of rather obvious logical flaws which distract from the story. There's also little to no science fiction in this version, since it revolves almost entirely about a lonely man's inability to deal with the loss of the difficult and rather fay woman he loved; the science fiction, such as it is, merely provides a pretty backdrop and an excuse for a series of dull flashbacks to the highlights of their relationship. Where the modern remake scores over Tarkovsky's film is that it's about an hour shorter, which means you can get it over and done with that much quicker. On the balance I found the modern take to be more accessible, the only problem being the lack of interest in what you are able to access.To sum up: if you're a science fiction fan rather than a fan of romantic drama, don't bother. If you're a fan of slow, dense, intense romantic dramas with troubled characters who sit staring into space for unreasonable amounts of time, and with stories which have pretensions of being intellectual, then you will probably enjoy this.The seven points I'm giving it are for a good cast who put in decent performances despite the stodgy material, and for fairly decent production values. I feel like I'm being overly generous and it actually doesn't deserve more than 6 points, but what the hell. At least they tried hard.

Solaris Someone warned me not to watch this movie. Steven Soderbergh shouldn't be allowed behind a camera. The man just can not direct anything with a budget of over 10 million dollars. Anyway, the biggest problem with this movie is that it is needlessly boring. The acting is wasted thanks to quick camera work sprinkled with bad angles, over exposed close ups and basically everything a fresh out of film school director would do when he is trying too hard to be artistic for the sake of being artistic. The actual story that this movie is based on is a solid enough novel with an actual plot but we only get to see it during the first 5 minutes and the final 7 minutes of the film. The rest of the film is just filler. Avoid this film. It is pointless and you'll get nothing out of it.

This movie starts out interesting, but pretty soon it becomes silly, and much more fantasy than sci-fi. The acting is so-so. The script is often stupid/awkward, but sometimes poetic (in a good way). The characters aren't introduced much, and seem unfamiliar and hard to associate with. The movie generally doesn't evoke much emotion, except a few times, mostly because it so often induces disbelief. Certain camera shots (like seeing a character's face) feel unnecessarily long without adding substance, and at the same time, some story aspects are underdeveloped. There is no explanation for how clones of specific dead humans, with their memories, appear out of nowhere. The crew members are certain, by unknown reasons, that it's the planet below that creates them. Of course. And they are not unusually perplexed, amazed or in disbelief. The whole movie feels shallow because of this unrealism. It would have been potentially interesting to learn more about the planet Solaris.Also, more could have been done out of the main character's approach to Solaris. More emotion.At one point the characters discuss how the "visitors" are built. One of the crew members comes up with what is supposed to be a wild guess, the other one programs a particle accelerator (how come they have one on the ship to begin with?) based on that guess, and it just happens to be correct. And again, no questions asked and no explanations. There are multiple such ignored bits in this movie.The mentioned physics is bad too. Bosons do not have anti-particles, and the Higgs field gives *everything* mass, and exists everywhere. Although the Higgs was not yet experimentally confirmed by the time this movie was made, this has been theorised for some time. It would only take a simple internet search.However, the movie has some good aspects too. The visuals are beautiful. There is some really aesthetic lightning and scenery. The planet Solaris looks fascinating, and there are some nice shots of it. There are a few good story elements about love and regret, and the occasional emotional atmosphere. Background music is fitting.