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Title: Blade Runner
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents will want to keep this movie away from children. There is a fair amount of violence, language, and sexual tension. Nothing overt though so ages 15 and up should be fine. |
Ah, “Blade Runner.” Considering the love affair I have with director Ridley Scott and my deep respect for actor Harrison Ford, I’m kind of surprised that I have only now just seen “Blade Runner,” a movie that is considered to be one of the classic science fiction movies that redefined a generation. Boy, do I feel behind the times. Maybe it took me so long to watch this because the thought that there were four different cuts of the movie out in circulation scared me. Either that, or I just wasn’t interested. Either way, when “Blade Runner: The Final Cut” came to a independently owned theater near me, I figured this was as good a time as ever to seek the movie out. After all, Scott promised this would be the final cut of the film. Considering that he promised Russell Crowe was an actor of great potential, and that “Gladiator” would be an epic classic, I figured he must be telling the truth. Well folks I’m lost.
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I honestly don’t know what the big deal behind this movie is. As far as I could tell it was nothing more then a flashy movie with lots of rain, gloomy undertones, and lots of signs for Coca-Cola. The story, from what I could gather, it about a cop named Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who is a special cop known as a “blade runner.” What’s a blade runner? It’s a cop who has skills to kill robots known as replicants, because this is one of those futures that we’ve seen in countless other movies where robots are made to be slaves, and end up becoming human and revolting. Actually, maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on this cliche. From what people have told me this was the first time it happened. I wonder if anyone remembers Fritz Langs 1927 classic “Metropolis” though? No, I guess they wouldn’t, as that’s probably too much of a generation gap. Anyway, so Rick has to hunt down four replicants who are running around, and likely killing real people.
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The reason: the replicants need human energy to survive. At least, I THINK they do! The movie never addresses whether this is the case or not, but I’m assuming that’s why they suck on other peoples faces before killing them. Rick meets a fifth replicant named Rachael (Sean Young), who appears more human then the other replicants. From the looks to the fact that she appears to have memories, Rachael is a convincing deception. What betrays her is her lack of emotion, which makes a romance that develops between the her and Rick, as Spock would put it, “quite illogical.” Seeing as how I have never seen previous cuts of the movie, I couldn’t tell you what is different about this final cut. I can’t tell you if it’s an improvement, but if it is improved from previous cuts, then I can safely say that nothing can save this film with further cuts.
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Am I missing something? I find there’s just so little to like about this movie. The characters are boring, there is only a vague notion that there’s a story buried beneath the surface, and the movie is slow and difficult to follow. The movie opens promising with a dark future, and this was likely the first film where the future wasn’t a place of fun and laughter, but actually a place that seriously sucks. That said, we’ve seen had “The Matrix,” “V For Vendetta,” and “Akira,” so this movie isn’t quite as shocking as it most likely once was. The only thing this movie has going for it is it’s special effects, and those are outdated by today’s standards. I will share though, without giving anything away, that the climax is very good. It’s ambitious, it’s exciting, and it looks good. I just wish there was something in the rest of the movie to make me care about it.
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