Blade Runner set the standard for the bleak, ugly, rainy future so popular in movies. The vision of 2019 Los Angeles is the film’s strongest suit, an amazing array of special effect styles flawlessly merged into engrossing imagery. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the storyline, which is impossibly dull and tough to sit through.
Depending on which of the five versions of the film you watch (this review is based on the new “Final Cut” which warranted the new DVD), where the film leaves you is completely different. The original “happy” ending is something like a awful joke, while the popular one leaves the entire story open to the viewer's interpretation. Given what you have to sit through to make it that far, the least the audience deserves is some clarification.
Harrison Ford takes on yet another popular cinematic role as Rich Deckard. He’s tasked with taking out four “replicants,” extremely human-like robots/clones/androids/cyborgs/insert favorite term here. Deckard is a stereotypical heavy drinker, disgusted with his work and tossed into a situation he doesn’t want to be in.
Character development is plodding, much like the overall pacing, and in this new edition the narration has been removed. It’s obvious some scenes were intended to have it, as they drag on with no real purpose well past the point of being useful to the story. Deckard’s relationship with a replicant feels forced, awkward, and rushed. It’s a mildly interesting attempt to make a non-human human, but it falters in execution.
Deckard’s encounters with his foes are equally flawed. Each has an obvious chance to kill him, yet lets it go. In the case of the final fight with Rutger Hauer’s character, this is especially annoying and apparent. It destroys the mood and tone.
Despite all the film's story flaws, the scenery is stunning. Giant multiple-story-high video screens, wonderfully designed vehicles littering the sky and ground, and sharp-edged towering skyscrapers all sell the futuristic feel. Numerous shots ensure the audience can appreciate the vistas in all their crowded glory. Certain aspects of life in the future are intriguing, too, though they are never fully explored.
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Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
Been looking forward to this being remastered. I am leaning towards the 4 disk standard version. Not sure I need the workprint.
2 - b. carroll
gee matt - don't hold back - tell us what you REALLY think.
yes, it's so bad that it's grown more popular over the last 25 years than it ever was on release, it's been given an unprecedented restoration treatment and release on disc, and just got moved into position #98 on the AFI 100 list.
yep. must be a bad film... how could anyone possibly like it?
brian carroll
UT, USA
3 - Matt Paprocki
"tell us what you REALLY think."
I believe that's what I'm supposed to do here. Correct me if I'm wrong.
"yep. must be a bad film... how could anyone possibly like it?"
I asked myself the same question.
That said, Roger Ebert initially hated the movie to. Years later after watching it again, he took it all back and said it's one of the greats of the genre. So..
In a few years, I'll give it another go. Maybe my thoughts will change. I love sci-fi, and this was my first time watching Blade Runner. Now that I have a better idea of what to expect, I'll give it a second shot.
Until then, the score remains the same.
4 - Christopher Rose
Well, as far as I'm concerned, this is one of the greatest movies ever. I always thought it inspirational the way the androids loved life so much and had, ok have, a major crush on Pris.
That said, I have zero interest in a 5 disc "Collectors Edition", which, like so many of these so-called special editions, is more just an attempt to milk the fans shamelessly.
5 - bliffle
I never saw "Blade Runner" before, though I've heard references to it over the years, so I look forward to watching this now, perhaps even tonight.
6 - STM
I agree with Rosey, Pris was dead-set hot ... except when she got mad. The amazingly beautiful Sean Young didn't go too bloody bad either, although I heard she went off the rails a bit later stalking James Woods in a harassment case and it tarnished her career (possibly unfairly).
And I must say, if I had to be "stalked" by anyone, Sean Young would have been one of my first choices ... :) Also, good to see a movie out of the era before men became reconstructed (harrison Ford at his nasty but human best) and, what's that bullsh.t word? Ah yes, metrosexual. I suppose it's just a general reflection of how Hollywood's become, though.
Great movie, however, and one of the genuine all-time greats (I've watched it many more times than once. Sorry Sean, I'd have loved you to have stalked me if indeed that's what really happened - and, honest, I'd never have called the cops) although the director's cut disappointed me a bit.
The neon and the fans going all day and all night reminded me of those hot, humid, summer nights in Sydney, too, when no bastard manages to get any sleep.
7 - Tim Holzbaur
Perhaps the writer of the review missed the commentary. It explains the language being spoken, and ultimately why Deckard lived. They never should have cut it out. I love this movie, and the very possible future it presents, and it will go down in history as the father of the modern sci-fi.