Blade Runner got mixed reviews upon its release and I think those initial impressions were somewhat accurate. It was also unpopular, I think it was a borderline bomb in the theaters. It's one of those movies that has been reassessed in later years and only really in the past 15 years have people started calling it a classic.

I certainly agree the film has significant flaws:
1. Borderline bad acting. In particular, I'll call out the wooden acting by Sean Young. Harrison Ford also completely phones it in and is a black hole at the center of the movie, sucking all of the energy off the screen. he hated being in this movie and it shows. There's zero on-screen chemistry between the two as well.
2. Plodding plot that seemingly goes nowhere is not helped by very weak, anodyne dialogue.
3. Weak Deus Ex Machina ending, at least in the theatrical release.

It's still likely my personal favorite movie, if I was forced to name one. This movie nails the eighties sci-fi aesthetic better and more completely than any other movie. It lives and breathes not only the aesthetics of that period but also the moral and cultural ethos that books like "Neuromancer" evoked. The film isn't particularly true to PKD's original blacker-than-black and somewhat humorous world view but it sure does nail cyberpunk. I'll admit, a large part of my love of this movie is nostalgia for that time and those books. (Note: my user name is a reference to the slightly later Snow Crash.)

However, it's obvious that the main attraction here is the amazing visual aesthetic. The production design, lighting design and shot composition is really second to none in sci-fi films. In particular, JS Sebastian's hulking, rotting luxury apartment filled with giggling, whispering genetically-mutated monstrosities is probably my favorite film set of all time. I'll also defend Rutger Hauer's staring intensity as Batty. To me, the music is also top notch. I think it's an amazing, timeless soundtrack, that's rare for a synth-based 80's score. The overall sound design is just spectacular as well, it's detailed and evocative.

As I said, the film is significantly flawed and has a bigger impact on me than it probably should warrant. I still love it.

yeah one of my favorite scenes is when Hannah is acting like a doll under that veil. Very cool stuff.

My recollection, from reading Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, is that Harrison Ford didn't have problem with the actual shoot, what he was "bored" by and "phoned in" was the voice-over narration.

I also like Sean Young's acting in the film.

I loved Brazil from first viewing, but I saw it at a slightly older age, I think 17, on VHS. It was one of the few movies I bought on VHS, and I kinda lusted after the Criterion laserdisc set. But then I have a pretty dark sense of humor, even back then, and a bit of love for the verbal wordplay of a witty British comedy.

Ridley Scott may be the director, but his statement is not categorical and absolute in the case of Bladerunner. The script had many different writers and some versions had Deckard discover he was a replicant while in others he was very much a human beyond all doubt. Ford felt the character was human and played him as human, the writer of the final draft intended him to be human. Scott was the only one still married to the idea that Deckard may be a replicant so as the director he made the suggestion in the only way he could, by making little visual hints (glowing eyes, unicorn, etc.)

The point of the film is that when AI gets that good, and human and replicant are indistinguishable, then we will be forever perplexed. There is no explanation in the film, just as if such technology really existed there would be much confusion and moral debate.

Yeah, I like the ambiguity of the ending. It's fun to think about the implications of both possibilities, and ties into the movie's theme of what it means to be human.

People who don't like or don't get the genius of Blade Runner on the first viewing shouldn't be allowed to watch movies.

I was way too much a doofy punk to appreciate Brazil on first viewing. It bored me and made me feel uncomfortable and a little disturbed. The latter two are still true, but the first feeling is long gone. It's an exhilarating, brilliant movie. Except for Kim Greist's performance (with the exception of her "Care for a little necrophilia?" line) everything and everyone else is spot on perfection.

I still have my Criterion LD set, which cost me $120 -- ON SALE from Ken Cranes -- back in 1997. I could barely afford it then, but I couldn't resist. Best purchase ever. I don't even have a LD player or nearly all of my LDs anymore, but I could never let that one go. Bought the Criterion DVD twice, as the original box set did not have 16x9 enhancement. And of course the Blu Ray too. That release set the gold standard for supplements, IMO.

And it still keeps getting better with age

Christopher Nolan loves that movie.

Nolan does love Blade Runner. Around 2001 he was a guest programer at the Nuart Theater in LA and he programed the original American cut of the film. It was the first time most people had seen it because all home video versions were the European cut.

Also, the whole flying Batwing or whatever it's called. That whole sequence in Dark Knight Rises where he flies it around for the first time at night is clearly a massive Bladerunner homage.

At the very least they should construct special camps for them so they don't infect the rest of the population.

Nah, people not getting Bladerunner the fist time around should not be shunned, as it is a different film animal like no other. The film is brilliant, but I only thought it was okay with first showing. You pretty much have to let go of your notions of what a film is or should be. Like Yoda said in Empire, "You must unlearn what you have learned." This film is a perfect example of that notion.

This.

It's still the only movie that got the cyberpunk aesthetic 100% right, which is kind of remarkable in its own right considering it came out before Neuromancer was released and cyberpunk, as a genre, was still in its infancy. And, on top of that, I don't think Ridley Scott was even aiming to make a cyberpunk film. But it's all there, from the multiculturism, to the bleak urban hellscape, the class divisions, the neo-noir.

It WAS a bomb. I was there. I was anticipating it's release
All the marketing for the film trumpeted that it was "From the director of Alien and the star of Raiders Of The Lost Ark", just the way ROTLA from the year before trumpeted the creative lineage from Jaws and Star Wars.
But in the latter's case, that association was commensurate with the new film. ALL of those films were old fashioned, popcorn munching crowd pleasers.
The trailers and TV spots seemed to conjure up a feel of Alien (moody, visually sophisticated, possibly dark and scary), while mentioning Raiders Of The Lost Ark seemed to imply the film would move at a good clip...like Ripley racing through the corridors of the Nostromo at the end of Alien.

Some people "got it" the first time around, but they were drowned out by how many people were nonplussed or outright hostile to it. Fortunately those people that did get it, held a torch for it for years so that a lot of us initially turned off by what it wasn't, gave it a second look and were finally able to appreciate it for what it was. This happened primarily on home video, and the deluxe Criterion Laserdisc was also a big assist in giving it the mystique of a misunderstood masterpiece.

Pretty amazing that you can better that pricey LD edition with a three disc Bd set that routinely goes for around $13 now.

I think a good example of someone coming around on Blade Runner from not liking it on first viewing, but liking it a lot on another viewing is the late great Gene Siskel.

Here's the Siskel & Ebert review of Blade Runner for its original 1982 release:
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And then here's their review 10 years later when they reviewed the re-released "Director's Cut" in 1992:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HPofu9nrkGE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Gene Siskel didn't like it in 1982 but then is so blown away by the movie in 1992 that he attributes his 180-degree turn on the movie mainly to it being the Director's Cut, although Roger Ebert is correct in this in saying that the new version isn't all that different from the original U.S. theatrical cut. (BTW, Ebert already liked it a bit due mainly to the strong visuals in 1982 and seems to have basically the same opinion 10 years later.)

I think is a good example on how this movie can grow on someone via additional viewings.

William Gibson has said the similarity is due to both him and Ridley Scott being influenced by the magazine Heavy Metal:
http://www.mybladerunner.com/faqs/2-...nk-in-general/

thank you for that!


i actually have the urge to watch the film a 5th time this weekend.

You may as well play the game while you're at it, it isn't great but it has a pretty great atmosphere.

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^Oh, that thing was terrible

i am wondering if the sequel will be more action oriented or thought provoking like the original.


2017 right?

I think it's safe to say that the Blade Runner sequel be action-oriented because it'll be a big budget movie production. The only way thought-provoking, non-action-oriented sci-fi movies seems to get made these days is if it's a low-budget, art-house type of film (such as Ex Machina and Moon).

Just look at the differences between John Carpenter's The Thing (coincidentally released on the exact same day as Blade Runner: 27 June 1982) and its quasi-remake-ish 2011 prequel The Thing and note how vastly different the new movie was in over-the-top scenes and pacing compared to the original. That level of difference is what we are going to probably get just given how these kinds of movies are made these days.

Prometheus & Terminator Genisys are sequels.

i have a Blade Runner wallpaper on my work pc now!!!


if that isn't fandom i don't know what is!!

Sometimes movies just don't connect with you at all. I went through this with Eternal Sunshine of the Eternal Mind. (Watched it 3 times) Eventually I just had to come to grips with the fact that it is one of the stupidest and most dreary and worst movies of all time and that those that love it are just plain wrong