More_Badass
Member
I had tried to check out Blade Runner a few years ago, and it didn't click with me. Couldn't even finish it. But with the new movie coming, I decided to try again (Final Cut) and I ended up really enjoying it.
For all the talk of it being a slow burn film and being "boring", Blade Runner moved faster than I was expected, and the slower parts and dialogue were never dull. It helps that the plot is so small and intimate, practically a Deckard slice-of-life. Just dropping you into the story of Deckard and the replicants keeps the pacing moving at a solid pace right from the opening. The story of Blade Runner feels like a small one happening among hundreds in this sprawling metropolis, while the world-building and details make the scope feel so much more grander.
Rutger Hauer gave an excellent performance as Roy, charming and cultured yet menacing and haunted, and Ford as Deckard was great too, if kind of dry. I think I liked him more due to my soft spot for sci-if noir and characters like him, rather than his characterization. But still Ford made him relatable and personable.
My main criticism after watching was that romantic connection between Deckard and Rachel felt completely unearned and had none of the emotional weight needed to work as a thematic element like the narrative wanted.
But Blade Runner's ultimate character is its world, and the atmosphere and sense of place is still amazing today. Crowded, dank, claustrophobic decay, rundown and rain-drenched. A lot of cyberpunk depictions get some of those aspects right - the rain, the neon, the decay - but Blade Runner has a realism and density that I think other depictions in film and games have failed to capture. The grounded approach to the future and future tech also worked to make Blade Runner stand out; many other cyberpunk works I've seen/read/played tend to go very heavy of the augmentations and high tech megacorp crushing the people, while Blade Runner feels more realistic in its depiction of the future.
Why did cyberpunk seem to shift to Tokyo City amounts of neon, hacking and slapdash (but still high tech) modifications, the big supercity versus the slums/shantytowns, high tech megacorp dystopian police force, etc? Blade Runners foundational vision is way more subdued and grounded
For all the talk of it being a slow burn film and being "boring", Blade Runner moved faster than I was expected, and the slower parts and dialogue were never dull. It helps that the plot is so small and intimate, practically a Deckard slice-of-life. Just dropping you into the story of Deckard and the replicants keeps the pacing moving at a solid pace right from the opening. The story of Blade Runner feels like a small one happening among hundreds in this sprawling metropolis, while the world-building and details make the scope feel so much more grander.
Rutger Hauer gave an excellent performance as Roy, charming and cultured yet menacing and haunted, and Ford as Deckard was great too, if kind of dry. I think I liked him more due to my soft spot for sci-if noir and characters like him, rather than his characterization. But still Ford made him relatable and personable.
My main criticism after watching was that romantic connection between Deckard and Rachel felt completely unearned and had none of the emotional weight needed to work as a thematic element like the narrative wanted.
But Blade Runner's ultimate character is its world, and the atmosphere and sense of place is still amazing today. Crowded, dank, claustrophobic decay, rundown and rain-drenched. A lot of cyberpunk depictions get some of those aspects right - the rain, the neon, the decay - but Blade Runner has a realism and density that I think other depictions in film and games have failed to capture. The grounded approach to the future and future tech also worked to make Blade Runner stand out; many other cyberpunk works I've seen/read/played tend to go very heavy of the augmentations and high tech megacorp crushing the people, while Blade Runner feels more realistic in its depiction of the future.
Why did cyberpunk seem to shift to Tokyo City amounts of neon, hacking and slapdash (but still high tech) modifications, the big supercity versus the slums/shantytowns, high tech megacorp dystopian police force, etc? Blade Runners foundational vision is way more subdued and grounded