Cameronius Explodius McMonius

WARNING: Spoilers will be necessary in the main review for me to talk about this movie in the amount of detail I want to. Final verdict will have spoiler-free conclusion

NOTE: I watched the Final Cut of the film, the official director's cut of the film which is what the director considers to be the 'complete' film.

 

Blade Runner was released in 1982 and was directed by Ridley Scott. It is about Rick Deckard, a 'Blade Runner' (kind of a policeman), who is assigned to terminate some Replicants (workers on an outer space mining colony) who have escaped from their post and reached Earth.

 

This is often called one of the greatest science-fiction movies ever made and that is definitely for good reason. Preparing for this film, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw on-screen.

 

Undoubtedly the best thing about this film is the theme that it explores and one that is likely to stay relevant for much time in real life; what human life really is. Most of us just take our life for granted as it is just what we have expected to be there for our entire lives so we never really question it or take a deeper look into it. This movie expresses the theme of what human life means very well as it explains it from the point of view of beings who aren't lucky enough to have that life (the Replicants) and the reason the audience now see it as so important is because it is expressed from that certain viewpoint.

 

The visuals are a big thing in this film and they are absolutely stunning and they remain some of the best I have ever seen in a film (along with 2001: A Space Odyssey). The colour and design choices help create an amazing landscape and adds a dark feel to the place too. I also believe that the visuals aren't just there just because they can but they also do add something to the movie too; the characters of the Replicants all simply want a human life and the beautiful look of all of the locations simply adds to their desires so therefore I think that the visuals add lots of extra effect to the film, not just for the viewer but also for the story and themes.

 

I find the Replicants themselves, Roy Batty (the main antagonist) in particular, to be the most interesting part of the film as I haven't seen any other characters like them in a film before. Instead of just being plain greedy and power-hungry villains, they only want the things they are after because they believe that they don't have a fair lifestyle compared to the humans and that they were only created for slavery. You can also see how hurt they are too, like in the scene where a Replicant is asked about his mother which agitates him as he has no mother and just simply wants one like every other human. The scene in the film that stood out to me the most was when Batty saves Deckard's life just so he can teach him the value of life and that he shouldn't waste what he has and the death of Batty's character that occurs afterwards was effective as the audience now felt for his character more than any of the actual humans because he had expressed his viewpoints well.

 

One of the biggest debates about this film and a question left at the end is if Rick Deckard, the main protagonist, is a Replicant or not. This was kind of left ambiguous at the end and I guess that was the final result after many people on the movie were debating whether he was human or not. I'm intrigued to see what the sequel does with this plot line and if it'll answer it or keep it ambiguous. If Deckard does turn out to be a Replicant then there'll be a lot of explaining to do.

 

Overall, this was a great film and definitely one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made in my opinion, with an interesting and effective theme and also many other things such as the visuals which aren't just thrown in there for the audience's delight but also for the characters too. I would highly recommend this film.

 

8.3/10

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