Review of Solaris (2002) by Anil E — 12 May 2014

The movie completely avoids almost all of the deep questions the book addresses. In fact, almost all except one. Everything science related was removed, so all that is left is the relationship between Kris and Rheya. I now understand why Lem himself thought this movie should have instead been titled "Love in Outer Space.".

On the other hand, there are a few positive things that can be said about the movie. They at least tried to do something with the visuals. There was an obvious attempt to make earth very similar to the one in Blade Runner (the constant rain made it lose all its subtlety). Additionally, the plot starts out as slightly interesting with the new focus on the couple. Unfortunately, the plot leads nowhere, and the ending is rather lousy. And the fact that Natascha McElhone cannot act doesn't help either.