anyone watched the remake THEN the original

Yes, I watched the remake first and then the original. Preferred the remake. It was a little more tense, scary and chilling. Won't give any spoilers, but the remake had an interesting twist that wasn't in the original. I rated the original high though since it was still a solid sci-fi movie.

I liked the remake with Clooney. I didn't like the original that much. I thought it as overly long and overly slow. It didn't need to be, and it doesn't add anything to the film, in my opinion. But some people like that.

I watched the remake first, and a couple of years later the original. The original without a doubt is better.

Realise you posed this question a while ago, but I saw the remake first

They're two completely different films ... I found the remake quite watchable – it wasn't a bad film, but perhaps lacked a certain clarity in what it was trying to do .. It felt almost like a TV movie to me – albeit one set in a factory (because one thing it didn't quite achieve was the sense of isolation and of being in space)

The original is one of the greatest films of all time, but you certainly have to be in the right mood for it – for me, maybe 1am with not much to do the next day, plus I'd usually watch it in two parts

The slow pace for the first 40-50 minutes would send the typical western audience to sleep these days ... I've not got the best attention span myself ... But it's very deliberate on Tarkovsky's part – it's made to slow you down; it was made even to slow 1970s audiences down .. To get you in that relaxed, dream-like, alpha state, before the movie really begins - which is when he gets to the space station

I'd say the whole first act is nothing more than a video sequence designed to lull an audience into a state of semi-sleep

Because once the film gets started, it's certainly not slow – not even self-indulgent .. It's really nail-bitingly compelling, and makes the remake feel much slower and more self-indulgent by comparison .. The relationship has such a strange, believable quality, as does the idea they're a long way from home .. I come away from the film feeling like I've been on holiday and fallen in love – but feeling maybe the whole thing was a dream ... Deeply affecting and serene – I love 2001 as well, but Solaris feels more human

Could people please stop refering to the movies as original and remake? They are both adaptions of the same book and the Tarkovsky version wasn't even the first one -.-

I saw the remake in theatre first. Glad I saw that one first because I would have been disappointed the other way around.