Rating: 
Summary: Plain and simple : A masterpiece.
Review: One of the best films ever made by one of the greatest directors. Do not check your brain at the door for you will need to use it while watching this movie. Slow paced, moody and deeply philosophical.
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing masterpiece!
Review: I am not an expert in heady, artsy movies, but I was fascinated by this early '70s Russian flick! You have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it, as Solaris is a long, very slow-paced, non-linear narrative that is heavy on dialogues and contemplation and light on special-effects. In fact, you might want to see more than once to better appreciate more details and nuances of the movie. I know, that would mean many hours with "Solaris", but I have found it rewarding.
The sci-fi plot of the "thinking ocean" and how it tries to establish contact with the human explorers in the space station is cool in its own right. But I guess the director was more interested in exploring the humanistic and emotional dillemas that afflict all human beings. I think Tarkovsky succeds most of the time, though sometimes he diverts into his own personal issues, which some might find distracting.
Between the misteries of the cosmos and of the human condition, Solaris also offers a beautiful, tragic love story. I was touched by the drama of Kris and his lover, who is performed by a very attractive Russian actress. She was only 19 years old but her performance displays remarkable depth of emotion and maturity. Her presence adds sensuality and empathy to the movie.
The end of the film is far-out and opened to many interpretations. I found it haunting and memorable. I do not want to spoil the pleasure of first-time viewers. I only recommend to watch the final chapter more than once: you might have different emotional responses from the conclusion of Solaris.
The comments from the experts in this Criterion edition are very welcome, as they inform about the battles with the Soviet Censorship, the budget constraints that forced the combined use of black-and-white and colored film and about the life of the director and how he put some of his obsessions and personal issues on film. Good work!
Rating: 
Summary: A sci-fi classic about what it is to be human
Review: Dr. Kris Kelvin, a psychiatrist, is sent to find out what happened to a crew in orbit above the planet Solaris. Upon arriving, he discovers that one of the crewmembers committed suicide and only two more remain. But, they are not entirely alone. Kris also learns that the planet can create people from the crewmembers' pasts and gives life them. Soon, he has fallen under Solaris' ways as his deceased wife, Hari, appears in his cabin.Director Andrei Tarkovsky has created visually stunning movie discusses what it means to love and to be a human being. Filled with fine acting performances by Donatas Banionis as Kris Kelvin and Natalya Bondarchuk as his dead wife Hari, the film relies much more on storytelling than special effects. The only drawback to the film is its length. A few scenes seem to drag on forever with no point to them. But, those can be easily overlooked. Don't confuse this with the George Clooney remake! There is no comparison between the two.
Rating: 
Summary: Ponderous and Enigmatic
Review: First off, don't think for a minute that I don't "get it". I do. I have been watching SF, reading SF for over 30 years, and I am just as thrilled to watch a brilliant piece of SF filmmaking - regardless of the public response or the inaccessability of the theme - as I am to view any great work of art. This version of SOLARIS, sadly, leaves more to be desired than it delivers. The writing is intentionally enigmatic, and one gets the sense that the filmmaker doesn't really know what's going on, so he's hiding his cluelessness behind a thin veneer of "cleverness". It doesn't work. There is nothing in the film I would call brilliant. The acting is so-so (having the lead walking around looking at things to creepy music for an hour is pretty lame), the photography is average, and the script doesn't do justice to the original material. I expect great art to leave me a better person - I can get lost in a masterpiece for hours. This film left me thinking I had wasted my hours.
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Summary: The Metaphysics of Loving and Being in Tartovsky's Solaris
Review: This film will positively perplex you if you are patient enough to give yourself over to it--especially to the richly visual images, to the dialog, and to the sound. Commentaries from Natalya Bondarchuk, as well as those from the cinematographer, air director, and music director, are really plusses. As to the film, I suspect too many Americans have had their minds colonized by Hollywood, and they will not be able to sit still for this film. This film is not another monument to attention deficit disorder. Here, if you pay attention, you will delve into questions of love, and death, and being. The film doesn't give many answers, but why should it? It raises the right questions, certainly some of the more pertinent questions that Lem's novel raises. No question, the film deviates from the novel, but at their cores, the melancholy atmosphere and the disturbed questioning about being and identity are parallel if not identical. I use this film, alongside the novel and the more recent Soderberg Solaris, in a Literature & Film class. Serious film students find this film a worthwhile challenge after wallowing among the hundreds of films that are frenetically paced and are as persistent in mind and memory as a stick of sugarless gum. Con Air and Matrix and Gladiator for those who like. Solaris is a film in the spirit of Antonioni's Blow-Up or Herzog's Aguirre or some Wim Wender's films, films for those who want thoughtful fare.
Rating:
Summary: YAAAAAWWWWWNNNNNN ! ! !
Review: [...] WAY too many long scenes, blah, blah, blah dialog, and only so-so special effect. [...]was expecting a interesting intellectual movie about the nature of reality.[...]. This film is too long, far too slow, and way too wordy. I admit Russian films can be long-winded but [...] Theres no soundtrack to speak of, I guess the music just gets in the way of the talking.[...] Read the book and avoid this film, if you can't afford the time for the book, then watch the more recent release, at least it moves at a snails pace instead of a geologic pace. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Rating: 
Summary: Sllloooooowwwwwww... ... ...
Review: interesting to say the least, but no, it's not good, it's boring. is it an intelligant film? yes, but that doesn't mean it's entertaining. watch a stephan hawkins tape instead, at least you'll learn something instead of trying to be some kind of art hippy loser.
Rating: 
Summary: Bored out of my mind
Review: Hi--Wonderful cinematography. But just about every scene was too long, as were many shots. You just felt like shouting 'cut'! Interesting ideas in places. But too much dialogue, too many aphorisms / philosophising; eg 'Man(kind) is...' Detached: didn't feel anything for the main character. Pretentious in feel. Where was the score? Sound? Slow moving, unengaging plot. Overall: cold, stagnant and boring. There were just too many unnecessary pointless moments. _S
Rating:
Summary: Hard science-fiction doesn't get much better than this
Review: I had all the reasons to dread this movie. After all, *everyone* has already praised it, it is a movie of my favourite sub-genre (not just science-fiction, but "hard" science-fiction, of which 2001:ASO is the acknowledged flagship), it is routinely called "the Russian answer to 2001", it is made by a director who is acknowledged widely as a master (Andrei Tarkovski), and so I was afraid of getting dissapointed. It couldn't be as good as I imagined, right ? Wrong. Very wrong. Solyaris *is* a masterpiece, although the resemblance to 2001:ASO fades away after a deeper appraisal. It definitively stands alone. I am not sure which one I like most (Solyaris currently rests third on my top 20 while 2001:ASO is fourth), but this should not influence one's appreciation of Solyaris. Solyaris is about many things : the limits of science and unrelentlessness, our tendancy to reduce everything in our own terms and being unable to open ourselves to the different, free will, guilt, and perhaps personal identity, and love, too. With such wonderful setting and material (notably in the form of the book "Solaris", by Stanislaw Lem), we would ask for nothing less. But when Tarkovsky does it, well, it's even better. But it's a movie made in his style : and if you don't have the attention span to watch a movie that lasts three hours, too bad. But you're missing out. How, then, to describe the plot ? Because I have to try. The human race is now united and exploring space, but it falls upon an epinous problem : Solaris, a planet whose mysteries remain intact after dozens of years of study. Not only is it composed only of one all-encompassing Ocean, but this Ocean may be sentient. At any rate, the three remaining occupants of the Solaris station are going insane, and cold-hearted psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is dispatched on a mission upon which the fate of the station, the study of Solaris, and perhaps even Solaris itself, depend. But as Kelvin uncovers the true nature of the madness that strikes the stranded scientists, his mission takes second place to his own psychological turmoil. I'm afraid that's as far as I will tell you, but that's already a half-hour. Solyaris is a three-hour visual fest. It has minimal special effects (with the notable exception of Solaris itself), and minimal music, in keeping with Tarkosky's style. They are not missed, of course. The acting is competent, when needed (as in 2001:ASO, there isn't a lot of it, but there is a lot more dialogue). The script, direction and visuals are sublime. This movie has been praised as Christian, and Tarkovsky himself was a Christian mystic, although he was more of a mystic than a Christian. I have seen it twice already and I can testify there is not one trace of religion in Solyaris (not that his Communist masters would have allowed such anyway). There is a resurrection, however, but to associate it with Jesus would be hackeyned at best. There is also not a lot of technology. In fact, we only see the station for a few seconds, and we don't even see Kelvin's capsule (except in the deleted scene). This is on purpose. Tarkovsky is not a science-fiction director, and only liked the story for its psychological aspects, not its technological aspects (indeed, according to biographies, viewing 2001:ASO cemented his idea of going away from a special effects fest and into the kind of movies he liked to make). He was forced by Lem to make a movie that stayed closer to the original story, and thus we got the best of both worlds. If you like science-fiction, especially hard science-fiction, you would be the king not to see this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Sci-Fi Film, Albeit Slow-Moving
Review: The original Solaris reminds me what the sci-fi genre used to be about. Back in the days before special effects and computer generated graphics transformed the genre beyond repair. Solaris is not an "effects movie". This film is admittedly not for everyone, (least of all those who feel the Matrix is a great science fiction film), but the original Solaris is sci-fi at its most intellectual. This is a "heady" movie that really makes you think. Some of its immagery is absolutely haunting. It stays with you. There is some beautiful photography going-on in this film with some breathtakingly classic imagery. The more you watch it, the more you'll see that I am right. Although Solaris is often compared to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", I think it's closer in tone to his posthumous "A.I.". Solaris, to me, is what Spielberg was attempting with "A.I." but failed. Solaris does a much better job and is a much better film. Sure, the stamp of Stanley Kubrick's 2001 is felt all over it, but there's some wonderful casting in with this film. These aren't hollywood cardboard cutouts, these are genuine real people and though the Russian actors don't speak a word of English, they are so full of depth and emotion - you really get to know the characters in this film is what I really enjoyed about it.
The Criterion Collection DVD 2-set is a great package. A bit on the pricey side, but for fans, shouldn't be a complaint. I doubt this film will draw in many new fans, especially considering the high price tag, but for those who wish to absorb sci-fi when it really meant something, this is a great movie.
Just the fact that we have a chance to see how the other side of the Cold War looked at science-fiction and space travel is worth it to me. The space program of the U.S.S.R. was nothing to sneeze at - (Sputnik anyone?)! The fact that this is a Russian film about outer space is enough for me. Have a look, you probably won't be disappointed either.
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