8 ms·

Of the sci-fi genre for me it will always be #1. The whole thing is just perfect, there's no other movie that comes close to the world that is envisioned in Bla

Of the sci-fi genre for me it will always be #1. The whole thing is just perfect, there's no other movie that comes close to the world that is envisioned in Blade Runner.

Gud 24d ago
Terminator #1 and #2 are probably more realistic though, despite the time travel.
- srean 24d ago
  But nowhere close to the emotional impact. People usually do not remember what happened turn by turn but they do remember what it made them feel. Funnily enough, in the movie, the humans have little no feelings but the androids do -- and that is the central question that the movie made me consider -- what makes us human. I am ofcourse biased because Blade Runner (original) is not only on my top 5 scifi movie list but also on my top 5 movie list. So much so that I am reluctant to watch 2049.
  - bwilli123 24d ago
    I most liked that just before his death Roy crafted some poetry. Creating Art? Isn't that what it means to be human?
    - ndsipa_pomu 24d ago
      To me, the whole point of Batty's final scene is his empathy. PKD made a big point of empathy being the defining quality of humans and even the Voight-Kampff test relies on it.
      - thesz 21d ago
        What if Batty saved Deckart to tell him about things he saw? Not for empathy to Deckart, but just to tell a story. Because, frankly, he may as well try not to kill Deckart, at all. For empathy. Or ask Deckart about how does he do, instead of going into monologue.
        ndsipa_pomu 19d ago
        I think that's a less interesting story if Batty doesn't develop and has only his self-interest. I interpret the ending as Batty coming to the end of his life and realising that all life is precious, not just his own. That's why he saves Deckard after toying with him and then goes into his final monologue that taunts Deckard with how much more of a human life that Batty has experienced. Of course, there's all the Christ symbolism with Batty's "crucified" hand and how he saves Deckard despite him killing all his friends and intending to kill him as well.
        the_af 19d ago
        > I interpret the ending as Batty coming to the end of his life and realising that all life is precious, not just his own. The voiceover in the original theatrical version makes this very explicit, in fact.
  - TheOtherHobbes 24d ago
    I think Blade Runner and Alien helped destroy mainstream science fiction. Before Blade Runner almost anything could be science fiction. After Blade Runner science fiction meant detective noir with #tech_upgrade - clones, memory implants, dystopia. Or it was US truckers and/or the military fighting nasty aliens in spaaaaaaace. (Star Wars and its magic space knights was always more fantasy with a science fiction stage set.) Blade Runner did it far better than the others, but then we had decades of mostly mediocre book knock-offs, especially in the UK. (Gibson gets a pass for taking the new trope even further by being a brilliant stylist, mixing in some tech orientalism, and inventing cyberspace.) It's a stunning, iconic masterpiece of a movie with an unfortunate chilling cultural effect. And ironically the Philip K Dick original was... very different.
    - srean 24d ago
      > And ironically the Philip K Dick original was... very different. True. Ridley Scott and Philip K Dick collaborated very closely to tell it like they wanted it to. Studios liked it ... not so much.
      - atombender 24d ago
        No, Dick did not collaborate with Scott at all. He was not formally involved in the development of the film. He didn't write anything and wasn't given any say. Dick actually hated the first drafts of the script, which deviated even more from the novel. He was also upset that he was asked to write a new novelization of the script that would essentially replace DADoES in print. He made comments in the press about how Hollywood was ruining his book. He really only changed his tune after his agent persuaded the producers to invite Dick to the set in 1981. He was basically coddled by Scott and his team (who was told Dick was creating bad publicity and needed to be assuaged) for a whole day, shown around the set and given a rough cut preview that included several major sequences and unfinished VFX by Douglas Trumbull. After that, he not only spoke highly of the screenplay (which had evolved with the help of David Peoples, though it didn't exactly get more faithful to the novel), he wrote enthusiastically about how the film was going to change the science fiction genre for ever. Unfortunately, he never got to see the finished film.
  - stuartd 24d ago
    > But nowhere close to the emotional impact It may be trite but “Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too.” gets me every single time
  - Gud 24d ago
    I disagree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKxoARmjLU&pp=ygUYdGVybWluYXRvciAyIGludHJvIHNjZW5l https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKxoARmjLU&pp=ygUYdGVybWluY...
JKCalhoun 24d ago
There are some acting missteps that unfortunately flaw the film for me. Harrison Ford is not very good in it—perhaps not a great actor generally. His pretending to be a nerd/fan in Zhora's dressing room is too cringey to watch it's so bad… I feel like I'm watching Mickey Rooney playing Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And the actor that played Leon (Brion James) is also difficult to watch (he was a distraction in The Fifth Element as well). My only complaints though.
- serf 24d ago
  I thought Brion James was fantastic in The Fifth Element because he's one of the few slapstick outlets. He comes off as sorta military-scary, and ends up frozen like a Looney-Tunes popsicle in the freezer a few minutes later , and dead-pan military is a kind-of-funny partner to Corbin being an outlaw bachelor. He then remains the dead-pan receiver of abuse from the president, etc. I agree about Harrison Ford, though I don't know who would've done it better at that moment in history. aside : The Fifth Element is considered to be one of the noisiest distracting sci-fi movies ever, so to hear your main distraction was Brion James made me grin.
  - coldtea 24d ago
    >because he's one of the few slapstick outlets Huh? Between Kassovitz trying to rob Corbin, the priest's sidekick, the head scientist, the archeologist with "Aziz, light!", the Chris Rock character, Corbins "fake wife" suggestion, the space port ticket counter gags, the president, and several others, the movie hardly has "few" slapstick outlets.
    - glenstein 24d ago
      Right, they're all over the place. That's just the kind of movie that it is, And to the extent that he serves as one of the distractions, it's complementing the tone and vibe of the movie. Like I wholeheartedly agree that he was a perfect fit for that movie, but not because he was one of a small handful of slapstick elements.
  - 24d ago
andrei_says_ 24d ago
Same. The atmosphere it creates is still unmatched. I wish I hadn’t watched BR2049. Felt like a cheap parody, from the torrents of water falling on the windows, to the fake light effects, to the cartoonish villain who of course had to butcher a human-looking replicant while monologuing in order to get a proper introduction.
- linksnapzz 22d ago
  Felt like Villeneuve agonized & sweated blood trying to make a homage to the original film (whose own appeal was not immediately grasped at release); which ended up not letting his own movie be as good as it could've been.
- the_af 19d ago
  I felt the same way about BR2049. I know some people love it, but to me it was an unnecessary movie that did nothing better than the original, and it only cheapened some of the characters. Also, Jared Leto: I simply cannot stand his scenery chewing, even if he was in the movie only for a few minutes. And now there will be a TV show... facepalm.

Of the sci-fi genre for me it will always be #1. The whole thing is just perfect, there's no other movie that comes close to the world that is envisioned in Blade Runner.

Gud 24d ago

Terminator #1 and #2 are probably more realistic though, despite the time travel.

srean 24d ago
But nowhere close to the emotional impact. People usually do not remember what happened turn by turn but they do remember what it made them feel. Funnily enough, in the movie, the humans have little no feelings but the androids do -- and that is the central question that the movie made me consider -- what makes us human. I am ofcourse biased because Blade Runner (original) is not only on my top 5 scifi movie list but also on my top 5 movie list. So much so that I am reluctant to watch 2049.
- bwilli123 24d ago
  I most liked that just before his death Roy crafted some poetry. Creating Art? Isn't that what it means to be human?
  - ndsipa_pomu 24d ago
    To me, the whole point of Batty's final scene is his empathy. PKD made a big point of empathy being the defining quality of humans and even the Voight-Kampff test relies on it.
    - thesz 21d ago
      What if Batty saved Deckart to tell him about things he saw? Not for empathy to Deckart, but just to tell a story. Because, frankly, he may as well try not to kill Deckart, at all. For empathy. Or ask Deckart about how does he do, instead of going into monologue.
      - ndsipa_pomu 19d ago
        I think that's a less interesting story if Batty doesn't develop and has only his self-interest. I interpret the ending as Batty coming to the end of his life and realising that all life is precious, not just his own. That's why he saves Deckard after toying with him and then goes into his final monologue that taunts Deckard with how much more of a human life that Batty has experienced. Of course, there's all the Christ symbolism with Batty's "crucified" hand and how he saves Deckard despite him killing all his friends and intending to kill him as well.
        the_af 19d ago
        > I interpret the ending as Batty coming to the end of his life and realising that all life is precious, not just his own. The voiceover in the original theatrical version makes this very explicit, in fact.
- TheOtherHobbes 24d ago
  I think Blade Runner and Alien helped destroy mainstream science fiction. Before Blade Runner almost anything could be science fiction. After Blade Runner science fiction meant detective noir with #tech_upgrade - clones, memory implants, dystopia. Or it was US truckers and/or the military fighting nasty aliens in spaaaaaaace. (Star Wars and its magic space knights was always more fantasy with a science fiction stage set.) Blade Runner did it far better than the others, but then we had decades of mostly mediocre book knock-offs, especially in the UK. (Gibson gets a pass for taking the new trope even further by being a brilliant stylist, mixing in some tech orientalism, and inventing cyberspace.) It's a stunning, iconic masterpiece of a movie with an unfortunate chilling cultural effect. And ironically the Philip K Dick original was... very different.
  - srean 24d ago
    > And ironically the Philip K Dick original was... very different. True. Ridley Scott and Philip K Dick collaborated very closely to tell it like they wanted it to. Studios liked it ... not so much.
    - atombender 24d ago
      No, Dick did not collaborate with Scott at all. He was not formally involved in the development of the film. He didn't write anything and wasn't given any say. Dick actually hated the first drafts of the script, which deviated even more from the novel. He was also upset that he was asked to write a new novelization of the script that would essentially replace DADoES in print. He made comments in the press about how Hollywood was ruining his book. He really only changed his tune after his agent persuaded the producers to invite Dick to the set in 1981. He was basically coddled by Scott and his team (who was told Dick was creating bad publicity and needed to be assuaged) for a whole day, shown around the set and given a rough cut preview that included several major sequences and unfinished VFX by Douglas Trumbull. After that, he not only spoke highly of the screenplay (which had evolved with the help of David Peoples, though it didn't exactly get more faithful to the novel), he wrote enthusiastically about how the film was going to change the science fiction genre for ever. Unfortunately, he never got to see the finished film.
- stuartd 24d ago
  > But nowhere close to the emotional impact It may be trite but “Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too.” gets me every single time
- Gud 24d ago
  I disagree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKxoARmjLU&pp=ygUYdGVybWluYXRvciAyIGludHJvIHNjZW5l https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKxoARmjLU&pp=ygUYdGVybWluY...

JKCalhoun 24d ago

There are some acting missteps that unfortunately flaw the film for me. Harrison Ford is not very good in it—perhaps not a great actor generally. His pretending to be a nerd/fan in Zhora's dressing room is too cringey to watch it's so bad… I feel like I'm watching Mickey Rooney playing Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's. And the actor that played Leon (Brion James) is also difficult to watch (he was a distraction in The Fifth Element as well). My only complaints though.

serf 24d ago
I thought Brion James was fantastic in The Fifth Element because he's one of the few slapstick outlets. He comes off as sorta military-scary, and ends up frozen like a Looney-Tunes popsicle in the freezer a few minutes later , and dead-pan military is a kind-of-funny partner to Corbin being an outlaw bachelor. He then remains the dead-pan receiver of abuse from the president, etc. I agree about Harrison Ford, though I don't know who would've done it better at that moment in history. aside : The Fifth Element is considered to be one of the noisiest distracting sci-fi movies ever, so to hear your main distraction was Brion James made me grin.
- coldtea 24d ago
  >because he's one of the few slapstick outlets Huh? Between Kassovitz trying to rob Corbin, the priest's sidekick, the head scientist, the archeologist with "Aziz, light!", the Chris Rock character, Corbins "fake wife" suggestion, the space port ticket counter gags, the president, and several others, the movie hardly has "few" slapstick outlets.
  - glenstein 24d ago
    Right, they're all over the place. That's just the kind of movie that it is, And to the extent that he serves as one of the distractions, it's complementing the tone and vibe of the movie. Like I wholeheartedly agree that he was a perfect fit for that movie, but not because he was one of a small handful of slapstick elements.
- 24d ago

andrei_says_ 24d ago

Same. The atmosphere it creates is still unmatched. I wish I hadn’t watched BR2049. Felt like a cheap parody, from the torrents of water falling on the windows, to the fake light effects, to the cartoonish villain who of course had to butcher a human-looking replicant while monologuing in order to get a proper introduction.

linksnapzz 22d ago
Felt like Villeneuve agonized & sweated blood trying to make a homage to the original film (whose own appeal was not immediately grasped at release); which ended up not letting his own movie be as good as it could've been.
the_af 19d ago
I felt the same way about BR2049. I know some people love it, but to me it was an unnecessary movie that did nothing better than the original, and it only cheapened some of the characters. Also, Jared Leto: I simply cannot stand his scenery chewing, even if he was in the movie only for a few minutes. And now there will be a TV show... facepalm.