--- title: "Solaris: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/solaris-1972/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/solaris-1972" critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 14 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Solaris (1972): what the critics said Critics' score 75 from 14 reviews: 12 positive, 2 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Solaris as science fiction concerned with memory, grief and human failings rather than technology. Praise centres on Tarkovsky’s patient visual storytelling, the eerie space imagery and the emotional weight of its questions about love and identity. The reviews repeatedly describe a film that demands close attention but rewards it with lingering unease and passages of tenderness. Its philosophical concerns are widely seen as inseparable from its human ones. The main division concerns what that patience achieves. Admirers find the length creates space for reflection; even some enthusiastic reviews acknowledge that watching can be a chore. The two mixed assessments retain substantial praise: Time Out admires the camerawork and human enquiry but finds the climax insufficiently rigorous, while Slant Magazine finds affecting passages within a meandering treatment of scientific interference. The spread is broadly positive, with reservations concentrated on pace and narrative discipline. ## Little White Lies — William Carroll Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 4 February 2017. The critic hails Tarkovsky’s film as the benchmark for science fiction, praising its exploration of human narcissism, memory and existence through a meditative lens on a remote space station. The piece singles out the film’s visual beauty and philosophical depth, particularly the final shot that opens up questions of reality and belief. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/solaris-andrei-tarkovsky-greatest-science-fiction-film) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 January 2003. Ebert praises the film as a profound, meditative work that uses length to create an environment for reflection on human nature, memory, and reality rather than conventional entertainment. He singles out the zero-gravity scene with floating candles and characters as a magical centerpiece and highlights the ending's invitation to reconsider the entire narrative. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-solaris-1972) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating A-. 25 May 2011. Tarkovsky views space as an abstract realm of consciousness and treats the story more as a ghost story than conventional sci-fi, with spectacular images of the planet that have a trance-like instability. The film is a challenging, difficult sit even by Tarkovsky standards, but its strange ambience lingers. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/solaris-1798168352) ## Empire — David Parkinson Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. Tarkovsky’s mesmerising adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s novel is still superior to Steven Soderbergh’s remake. It concentrates on the eerie realisation that there’s nothing more terrifying out in space than our own selves. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/solaris-2-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Mark Olsen Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2017. Olsen sees the re-release of Solaris as an opportunity to appreciate its poetic, metaphysical take on science fiction anew, noting its more graspable story compared to Stalker. He praises its enveloping, overwhelming quality on the big screen and its provocative addition to philosophical sci-fi discussions. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-tarkovsky-stalker-solaris-review-20170518-story.html) ## The New Yorker — Alex Ross Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 8 February 2021. Ross views Solaris as Tarkovsky's attempt at transcendental science fiction focused on haunted memories and unresolved conflicts rather than space mechanics, calling it transfixing despite the director later deeming it his weakest. He highlights the majestic long takes, philosophical dialogues, and Bach soundtrack as hallmarks. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/15/the-drenching-richness-of-andrei-tarkovsky) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 February 2011. Scott reflects on Tarkovsky's Solaris as a meditation on space, consciousness, memory, and loss, using the sci-fi premise to explore vast human emotions. He appreciates how the film equates individual inner worlds with the universe itself. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/video/movies/1248069602346/critics-picks-solaris.html) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1971. The review calls Solaris a strange, slow but absorbing parable on life and love in sci-fi guise, effective in its space effects, intense playing, and moral statements about love, life, and humanity. It notes the sentient planet creating hallucinations or manifestations from the crew's needs. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1971/film/reviews/solyaris-1200422709/) ## Slant Magazine — Clayton Dillard Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 6 May 2017. Tarkovsky favors thematic and metaphorical suggestion over narrative drive, filling the film with charged objects and allusions to art, nature, mythology, and philosophy that create an overwhelming, eternal resonance. The film renders some affecting passages as bright spots in a meandering attack on scientific tampering with the unknown. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/solaris-1972/) ## Time Out — DC Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 14 July 2014. The review describes the film as both engrossing and alienating, Tarkovsky’s thoughtful response to 2001: A Space Odyssey that prioritises moral and human concerns over technological spectacle. It praises the wondrous camerawork and solid human enquiry while noting the climax lacks rigour. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/solaris) ## The Playlist — Rodrigo Perez Rating A. 6 July 2011. The critic calls it arguably Tarkovsky’s most deeply felt story, a simple tale of grief and lost love with sci-fi questions of identity and humanity, highlighting the devastating emotional core and near-transcendent moments like the languid earth-bound opening and stunning zero gravity sequence. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/the-films-of-andrei-tarkovsky-a-retrospective-20110706/2/) ## Eye for Film — Tony Sullivan Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 23 March 2009. The critic finds the film a chore requiring careful attention but ultimately rewarding beyond almost any other, praising its massive dignity, eerie beauty, moments like a Brueghel painting coming to life and a weightlessness ballet, and especially its haunting, perfect ending on identity and humanity. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/solaris-1972-film-review-by-tony-sullivan) ## Collider — Sean Naughton Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 27 February 2022. The critic celebrates Solaris as a cerebral sci-fi classic and direct response to 2001: A Space Odyssey, praising its focus on fully realized characters, deep emotions, grief, and humanity over visual spectacle. It singles out the planet's manifestation of subconscious desires and the film's lasting influence on later works like The Fountain and Inception. [Read the review](https://collider.com/solaris-andrei-tarkovsky-influential-legacy-explained/) ## Paste — Kenneth Lowe Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 February 2022. The critic describes Solaris as an inward-facing meditation on humanity's inability to move past its failings and its tendency to reshape new worlds in its own image rather than seeking transcendence. It singles out the imperfect recreations of memories (like Hari's dress) and the central question of whether we love the person or their shadow. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/andrei-tarkovsky/solaris-1972-space-age) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/solaris-1972.md