While I haven't watched Stalker, I did see Tarkovsky's Solaris. I was sold on the notion that it was one of those films everyone ought to see before they die; 166 minutes after sitting down to watch it in earnest, however, I came away with one question:

What even was the point of it all?

They say that it is perfectly acceptable for the perceived meaning of an artistic work to vary from person to person, and in the case of the purposefully nebulous Solaris and yours truly, it is a moral, and it is this: Never mistake vagueness for depth, ambiguity for complexity, and deliberate incompleteness for deeper meaning.

While the cinematography can be said to be quite good for its time, it could not make up for the simple fact that the story of Solaris is, in a word, bad. Tarkovsky is overrated as a film director, and giggling at silly posts on a Telegram meme channel would be a much better use for your time.