Whats so great about Blade Runner?

[Crazedwraith]

I've been reading the "Serenity = Best SF movie" thread and almost everyone there has mentioned Balde Ruuner as one of the best.

Now I recently purchased the Director's Cut of Blade Runner, on the cheap from Woolworths and watched. And to put it quite frankly, it was shit. The andriods just wander around being wierd and philosophisng about life the universe and everything until Deckard shoots them in the face after an unexciting fight scene.

So why are most people rating it as one of the best? Is the Director's cut noticable shitter than the original?

[NecronLord]

Because for a lot of people it was an introduction to any view of intelligent machines that's more thoughtful and considered than Star Wars'.

[Stravo]

You see that look in the movie, you know, run down urban landscape, lots of rain, shadows and light, the whole noire look, that's all new in a sci fi movie. Wanna see dystopian before Blade Runner? Check movies like Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run. Does it look anything like Blade Runner?

The problem with Blade Runner is that it is old now and other movies have come out aping the visual style but when it first came out all of that was brand new.

And cinema techniques aside I never saw a sci fi movie at that time (and frankly not many afterwards) that dealt so plainly with issues of mortality. Roy Batty's speech at the end still moves me because it is one of the great issues revolving around our mortality - after we die everything that we did, saw, experienced goes away like it never happened. So what is the point?

I'm not saying that Bladerunner isn't slowly paced and certainly not an action packed film but it had its impact on sci fi ever since and that can't be denied. It belongs up there as a ground breaking film for the genre.

To put things in perspective, when you see Citizen Kane now you're first impression is: That's IT?! That's what all the hubub is about? Well one you consider that when the film first came out it did things that other movies did not before it then you can understand. When you view Citizen Kane it is not in a vaccuum, it is after decades of other movies building on what Kane did so its not so fresh anymore. The same here with Bladerunner.

[tim31]

Or to use a low brow analogy, The Breakfast Club may seem cliched twenty years on, but when it came out it was a genre-defining teen movie.

[Molyneux]

This reminds me of the people I've run into who dislike Tolkien for being 'too derivative'.

Blade Runner was the first real film with any sort of cyberpunk tones. It set the stage for Robocop, the Matrix (the good parts, anyway), Ghost in the Shell...

[Big Orange]

Blade Runner is not awful, but I find Alien (Ridley's earlier effort) much more watchable and entertaining - Blade Runner has that unique feel and Rutger Hauer kicks ass, but I feel it has few minor plotholes that even the Director's Cut does not fix (why is Decker supposedly a Replicant clone? How did Roy Batty enter Tyrell's inner chamber in his massive pyramid headquaters?).

[Sam Or I]

Blade Runner is not awful, but I find Alien (Ridley's earlier effort) much more watchable and entertaining - Blade Runner has that unique feel and Rutger Hauer kicks ass, but I feel it has few minor plotholes that even the Director's Cut does not fix (why is Decker supposedly a Replicant clone? How did Roy Batty enter Tyrell's inner chamber in his massive pyramid headquaters?).

You see all the pictures in his appartment, replicants have a thing for pictures like that. The biggest clue though is the unicorn dream, then when he finds the origami unicorn that Adama leaves. The script was written as if he was human, Harrison Ford acted it as he was human, Scott directed it as though he was a replicant. So there is no true answer. That the question is still debated to this day. It is one of the things tha makes it a classic and good science fiction.

The special effects in the movie are great, even by todays standard they still hold there own.

As point out earlier it was ground breaking in many regards. The whole cyber punk theme which seems to be repeated over and over. It was the first movie to really dig deep into the quest if A.I. should have rights.

Bottom line is that it was a ground breaking movie in many ways, and asked alot of questions which have now become cliche.

[Mobius]

Adama

That's Gaff commanding the Galactica, pal; not the other way around

[Admiral Valdemar]

Blade Runner is just superb cinema, from the acting to Ridley's directing and the sharp screenplay backed by Vangelis' score. Yeah, it seems silly setting it in 2019, but that's a minor niggle when watching true sci-fi excellence. The world that seems so far away, yet so similar is what makes it grab you, whereas you know Star Wars and Serenity are simply fantastical worlds you'll likely never see; BR is something that could almost seem like where we're headed.

[Mobius]

BR is something that could almost seem like where we're headed.

Well the look of L.A. 2019 was inspired by Tokyo IIRC and anyone who went to Tokyo,Osaka, Hakata or Hong-Kong has probably felt the Blade Runner feeling of the town.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I don't think those places are dark 24/7 though.

[Mobius]

I don't think those places are dark 24/7 though.

You got me there

[Simplicius]

The biggest clue though is the unicorn dream, then when he finds the origami unicorn that Adama leaves.

Stupid question, maybe, but how exactly does unicorn = replicant? It sailed completely over my head when I saw the film.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

The biggest clue though is the unicorn dream, then when he finds the origami unicorn that Adama leaves.

Stupid question, maybe, but how exactly does unicorn = replicant? It sailed completely over my head when I saw the film.

It suggests that Gaff knows the contents of Deckard's dreams.

[Sam Or I]

The biggest clue though is the unicorn dream, then when he finds the origami unicorn that Adama leaves.

Stupid question, maybe, but how exactly does unicorn = replicant? It sailed completely over my head when I saw the film.

There was no way of Gaff (aka Adama) of knowing Deckards dream, unless it was implanted. At the end the Origami Unicorn hinted that Gaff did infact know what was in Deckards head.

[Shinova]

For me, no one has done a sci-fi city like how Blade Runner has done it. Moody, oozing with atmosphere, high-tech but looks like something that's been used and lived in, and something about it just looks majestic.

Fifth Element: way too bright, colorful, and the high-techness is too blunt. We all love Coruscant, and we know it's a staggeringly huge city, but it's only physically huge. It doesn't really posses majesty.

Or at least in my mind.

It's also a movie that says there's only two ways to do special effects: well, or poorly. Practically no CG back then, and the sunset scene in the Tyrell pyramid looks billions of times better than anything I can recall in Fifth Element or Star Wars.

[Teleros]

We all love Coruscant, and we know it's a staggeringly huge city, but it's only physically huge. It doesn't really posses majesty.

Well it's certainly impressive, but it's more of an ordinary city than something built to convey anything like that, so I'm not sure it's really meant to.

[Shinova]

And it should be obvious, but Blade Runner isn't a movie you go watch to be entertained, but rather one to exercise your mind with.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

2019 LA doesn't really convey all that much majesty, considering it's a massive post-cultural melting pot explosion semi-industrial urban wasteland in a fallout ecological disaster environment.

It's certainly a cinematic city that conveys definite substance, though. It has the look and feel of a real place.

[Shinova]

2019 LA doesn't really convey all that much majesty, considering it's a massive post-cultural melting pot explosion semi-industrial urban wasteland in a fallout ecological disaster environment.

Dystopia has a majesty of its own.

Of course, the film's opening probably contributed a lot to my opinion.

[VT-16]

I think it was mentioned being envisioned as "a film 40 years into the future with an asthetics of 40 years ago". (In 1982)

Which explains Rachael's 1940s hairdo and the general film noir mood.

[Teleros]

Of course, the film's opening probably contributed a lot to my opinion.

Here it is. Impressive, yes, but not majestic.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I think it was mentioned being envisioned as "a film 40 years into the future with an asthetics of 40 years ago". (In 1982)

Which explains Rachael's 1940s hairdo and the general film noir mood.

Blade Runner is frequently regarded as originating a specific genre of its own: future noir.

[Spice Runner]

So why are most people rating it as one of the best? Is the Director's cut noticable shitter than the original?

What everyone above has said holds very true about the original movie that was released in theatres and is shown on T.V. every now and then. The Directors cut which you purchased does noticeably cut out Deckard's voiceover which, in my opinion, somewhat lessen the noirness (if that's a word) of the movie.

[Uraniun235]

As point out earlier it was ground breaking in many regards. The whole cyber punk theme which seems to be repeated over and over.

What about Blade Runner is "cyberpunk"? Just the fact that it's in a grimy and vaguely depressing future-city?