I'm not visiting this thread as much as I did and should.
I watched Solaris (1972), and now I'm watching Solaris (2002).
So, I have my doubts on Tarkovsky Solaris. It has this strange beauty, but everything else tells me that a beautiful cinematography (beautiful female lead as well, maybe) doesn't make a good film. It starts out so slow for the audience to swallow what the movie means to show, but at the end the dialogues are waaaaay too much with philosophical jargon, all the while I catch up to the basic information going through 'experimental' style of the film. Some of the interpretations of the ending made me iron out some of my questions and doubts about the style of the film (especially those B&W scenes), but I'm still not sure what the movie ultimately builds up to. It just feels like it rushes towards its destination at the last moment through some heavy-handed lines.
Soderbergh Solaris on the other hand; oh my god. I can't believe this movie is practically snubbed, forgotten, not even getting a proper Blu-ray treatment. While Tarkovsky made a somewhat flawed film that has undeniable beauty, Soderbergh made a flat-out eye/eargasm with this one. The editing is perfect. Here and there it has one of the best cross-cuts I've ever seen. The music by irreplaceable Cliff Martinez is top notch, and is used in the best possible way when it is used. Emotion is suppressed with each character and each line, yet just thrives with textures. If there's someone who doesn't know the director of both films, it would be very easy to prefer Soderbergh to Tarkovsky.