Blade Runner is a sci-fi classic that really gets a lot of credit and is heralded as a great film. The cinematography is very impressive, but besides being very nice to look at, it's not too great in my opinion. It follows an interesting story of the future where "Replicants", or humanoids, are created to be exactly like humans, but with super strength and a four year life where they will die regardless. Harrison Ford's character Decker is a Blade Runner, a "policeman" like person who kills renegade replicants. There are six that escaped from another planet they were slaves on, killed 23 people and escaped to Earth. Their goal is to find out how to live longer than 4 years. They bring Decker in to kill them all and it's a race between the Replicants trying to find their maker to find a "cure" for their four year lives before Decker shoots them and ends their lives before it would happen "naturally". I'm going to watch it with commentary by Ridley Scott to try to get the whole perspective, but it's a pretty weak story. Ford, Darryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, and Edward James Almos (Jaime Escalante- HOW DO I REACH THEEESS KEEEEEEDS?) round out a decent case, with some weaknesses in some of the bit roles.
Bottom Line: 7.7 out of 10. Solid film highlighted by the cinematography and sets, but lacking in substance beyond that.
I thought it was interesting how the Ford's character and narration were almost straight out of 1950s detective novels, and as a general rule I love narration. Other than that, the story was weak, powerful weak.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed by how rich the scenery was, but the story was weak. I am going to listen to the Ridley Scott commentary and hopefully learn some stuff about his thoughts. Great call on the classic narration style where the main cop narrates himself.
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