Tuesday, June 16, 2009

#97: Blade Runner (1982)


I won’t lie, I’ve never been a huge sci-fi fan. They’ve just never done much for me, so going into Blade Runner, I was really skeptical. Oh yeah, and the echos of it being terribly boring didn’t help either. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but that didn’t necessarily mean that I was thrilled by it.

It should be noted that I watched the director’s cut (Ridley Scott) of this film, that apparently abandons the Harrison Ford narration of the film, expands on the romantic scenes with Ford and Sean Young, and has an ending, which I can testify to as having “somewhat of a bleaker ending.”

With that said, Blade Runner follows Rick Deckard (Ford), a blade runner who is called out of retirement to terminate human clones, known as replicants, who wish more harm than good in the futuristic Los Angeles of 2019. Five replicants (one who is played by Daryl Hannah) have escaped from their exile island to further their short life-spans, and it is up to the rebel Deckard to stop these violent and strong clones from killing civilians to obtain their goal.

Much has been made about the visuals of this film, and they are spectacular. Even though this film was made in 1982, they still hold up, which can’t be said for many things that have come out of the 80’s. And honestly, that’s really the only reason why I can fathom that this film is on the list. The story is intriguing, but the replicants come off more boring than dangerous, and although Harrison Ford does well with the part, it’s nothing to write home about. I did get caught up in the story, but the final battle scene is just like the rest of the movie, very long and slow so you can take in the visuals. I don’t mind endings of movies that keep you guessing, but this one didn’t provide enough information throughout the film to even gather clues to what Scott was trying to say.

If you are really into cinematography and visual effects (especially before the rampant CG you see all the time these days), Blade Runner should be in your collection, but if you are neither a fan of sci-fi or slower paced movies, I would be very surprised if you would enjoy this film.

I give Blade Runner 2.5 out of 5 funky costumes.

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