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Review: Solaris
Lem's novel is a really good work of sci-fi, not light reading but worth the effort to comprehend. The new Solaris movie is only 90-odd minutes long, and at that it's too long.
Comparisons will be made to 2001 and Apocalypse Now, two other slow-moving, philosophical movies. The problem is that both of those movies actually had interesting things to say, and managed to keep the viewer's attention despite being slow-paced. Solaris is simply slow. Long sections of the movie have no dialog and no background sounds whatsoever. When there is background music, it lacks the classical majesty of 2001 and is actually a bit annoying. These flaws might be forgivable if we were truly interested in the plot, but we aren't: it's a trivial love story, told many times before. (Most of the interesting parts of Lem's book have been sliced away to leave only the love tale, and the sci-fi twist is not enough to save it, IMHO.) I found myself nodding off during parts of the movie.
A couple of the reviews I read didn't quite grasp what was going on, especially the end. I found it quite clear and straightforward: the movie gives you plenty of clues so there shouldn't be any doubt left in your mind when the credits roll. Admittedly I approached the film with substantial knowledge about the book, but... it should have been clear to anyone.
Overall: it's pretty. The effects are well-done, at least you aren't short-changed there. As far as sci-fi movies go, it isn't bad - there have been so many worse sci-fi movies that I'll take whatever I can get. And at least they had the decency to make it short; if this movie were 2.5 hours long instead of 1.5, it would be intolerable. I'd recommend it to sci-fi fans. I'm not sure I'd recommend it for non-fans, however; if you want a love story, go see Ghost or something.
nah.
Soon as I saw the story on the front page I knew what awaited inside. Hundreds of posts from zitty geeks trying to be punker-than-thou by coming up with ever-more-obscure namedropping to make up for their lack of real style (or to pretend that they are actually old enough to have been involved). Drop the pretension kiddos. We all know that your Blink 182 CD is older than your copy of Bollocks.
I love how a whole new level of conformity has been created by the average bozo's efforts at individuality. It might almost work if your personal definition of individuality didn't depend so heavily on how you present yourself to others. I mean, what's the sense of being into bullshit like [insert pseudo-non-mainstream hobby here] if you can't talk about it to make yourself superior to your peers?
Kinda sounds like the Linux crowd, huh? "I'm so ALTERNATIVE by patching my kernel every day while you brainwashed Windows sheep meander in unenlightened tedium." Funny to think that if you had back all the time you spent tweaking and patching (for no good reason other than to say you have the latest version), you wouldn't know what to do with the workstation on your desk.
*sigh*
excuse the rant. caffiene has yet to be digested.
Solaris is a great operating system, but SUN Microsystems' hardware is ungodly expensive, and the only multimedia software that's compatible with the Solaris operating system is GIMP ;-)
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
Die Another Day has an invisible car?! I heard it was crap, but with this information, I'll definately be seeing it!
you sir have achived the first post, please accept my praise today
But IMHO the phrase 'Jumped the shark' has, in and of itself, jumped the fucking shark. Go ahead and mod me down, I'm just sick of seeing this phrase.
Don't park drunk, accidents cause people.
the shark jumps you!
There has been talk of that, that she's going to her own series. At least she has a real love for the Bond franchise - I've read various interviews on how she saw Ursula "Honey Rider" Andress in a Bond film and wanted to be a Bond girl ever since. She seems legit in that, considering she just came off a great role in Monster's Ball and pretty much has an open shot on roles now. Her introduction scene (I haven't seen D.A.D. yet) pretty much matches Ursula's entrance, right down to the knife on her side.
Whats worse for me is all the tie in stuff, and thats been bad for years. Bond drive a BMW? Hah. At least now he drives the (pseudo) British Aston-Martin (A-M and Jaguar owned by Ford for years, some would say saved by Ford...) But now we have Bond's fave Vodka, Bond's fave razor, Bond's fave rectal itch ointment... I'm not watching a movie, I'm watching a 90 minute commercial.
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