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The most pretentious Science Fiction film?

posted 10 years ago by Tiger_Trek
16 replies | jump to latest

I have no problem with slow and long movies. 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favorite movies. But Solaris is complete nonsense.

1. It is filled with pseudo-intellectual philosophical nonsense that can be interpreted in any way that suits the interpreter.

2. Tarkovsky doesn't know how to communicate with the audience. Simple plot points are almost impossible to understand. Russian being my native language didnt help at all.

3. There is absolutely no world building and no attempt is made to create an interesting or unique future. Characters wear simple early 70's clothes. The car scene takes place in a normal 70's city with cars from the early seventies. These things make me unable to suspend disbelief and instead of pulling me into this world it pushes me away and makes me realize that i'm watching a dated movie.

4. There is absolutely no sense of pacing. Whoever edited this is clueless. At least 40 minutes can be cut out to make it better.

And by the way this is my opinion after a second full viewing of Solaris. Tarkovskis Stalker is also one of my favorite movies of all time so its not like i don't "get" Tarkovsky.

[–] SamoanJoes 8 years ago

There is absolutely no world building and no
attempt is made to create an interesting or unique
future. Characters wear simple early 70's clothes.
The car scene takes place in a normal 70's city
with cars from the early seventies. These things
make me unable to suspend disbelief and instead of pulling me into this world it pushes me away
and makes me realize that i'm watching a dated
movie.

I disagree. To me it seemed like a realistic approach to the future. There were no flying cars, no monorails throughout the city, no automatic sliding doors in every room. Funny you say that you like 2001 but I don't feel that the depiction of the future is drastically different between the two films.

[–] jadedbaby 8 years ago

FWIW, Tarkovsky on Science Fiction and "Solaris."

"My Solaris is not after all true science fiction. Neither is its literary predecessor. What counts here is man, his personality, his very persistent bonds with planet Earth, responsibility for the times he lives in. I don't like your typical science fiction, I don't understand it, I don't believe in it. The fact is when I was working on Solaris I was concerned with the same subject as in Rublov. Human being. These two films are only separated by the time the action is taking place." -- Tarkovsky

[–] Burk48917 (11434) 3 years ago

It's up there.