{"id":49459,"date":"2025-09-11T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=49459"},"modified":"2025-09-03T01:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T05:05:55","slug":"solaris-2002-science-fiction-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/11\/solaris-2002-science-fiction-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Solaris (2002) [Science Fiction Month]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A man goes to a nearly abandoned space station in response to a distress signal, only to find the crew experiencing hallucinations of their deceased loved ones. But are they really hallucinations, or is there something else at play here?<\/p>\n

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In 1961, Stanislaw Lem wrote a truly fantastic book about grief, loss, and alien hallucinogenics. That book was called Solaris, and it went on to be adapted into a film in 1975 by Andrei Tarkovsky, and as such, many said it didn’t need another adaptation after being brought to life by someone retarded as a cinematic genius. But in 2002, with the advancements in special effects and with a bigger budget to put behind it for the Americanized Hollywood version, Solaris once again found it’s way onto the silver screen. And while this might sound like the recipe for a disastrous and unnecessary reimagining, it actually manages to be a very solid and noteworthy adaptation, heavily focusing on the sadness of loss and the beauty of life. Dialing back from the focus on alien visuals and instead focusing on the characters, Solaris is one of the rare times that Hollywood actually made a film more human instead of choosing style over substance.<\/p>\n

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And a lot of the reason behind that is Steven Soderbergh, whom I don’t think can make a bad movie. His attention to detail and focus on the humanity of his characters is strongly felt in how the film is shot and the story is told, and the fact that he adapted the novel into a screenplay himself is palpable throughout. Of course, being produced by James Cameron certainly helps matters. It’s a beautiful depiction of life, and those were leave behind, and while Lem himself expressed disdain for the focus of the film adaptation of his work, I find that it’s a heartrending take on a very relatable topic; grief.<\/p>\n

Though his presence can sometimes be a bit of a distraction, George Clooney is wonderful as the emotionally distant and torn to pieces Dr. Chris Kelvin, and his sadness is felt through his every action and motive. Viola Davis is also wonderful, as always, in a role that may be even more tear jerking than Kelvin, portraying a mother who has suffered an unimaginable loss who would do most anything to see her son again. Joined by Natascha McElhone as Kelvin\u2019s deceased wife, her return to his side is perfectly dichotomous; is she real or is she just a hallucination caused by the planet below the space station? Still, the decision to not focus so much on the how and why and instead using the story as a vehicle for grief, depression, and loss, is a refreshing spin on the science fiction genre, and the cast helps to paint that portrait astronomically well. No pun intended. Okay, maybe a little.<\/p>\n

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When the planet is shown on screen, it’s a beautiful sight to be had, all thanks to the gorgeous special effects. They’re beyond their time, having not aged a bit in over 20 years, and the film benefits largely from the less is more approach. Accompanied by a truly moving score and cinematography that feels like sadness, Solaris is a beautiful film in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s rather criminally underrated and goes unacknowledged in the shadow of Tarkovsky\u2019s adaptation, Solaris still holds its own as an emotional and moving film that uses its setting of power space and otherworldliness to hit you right where it hurts; home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man goes to a nearly abandoned space station in response to a distress signal, only to find the crew experiencing hallucinations of their deceased loved ones. But are they really hallucinations, or is there something else at play here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,1458],"class_list":["post-49459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-sci-fi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49534,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459\/revisions\/49534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}