Blade Runner Review ~ Mark Kermode

Seeing how hard Ridley Scott tried to create a new world for watchers to get lost in you would've thought he would spend more time on the actual story line for his main character. Harrison Ford has often been reluctant to answer why 'Blade Runner' is such an iconic film and this is probably due to the fact that his character, Rick Deckard, is incredibly stupid. Throughout the whole film we are led to believe that Deckard is human yet there are many minute details that could lead us to believe he is a Replicant, however that's moving on from the point of the story.

The film opens with a simple paragraph explaining what is going on and we are introduced to these human replica robots inventively called 'replicant'. They are used in the slave labour and to explore new worlds however when it turns out that these robots are capable of murder at their own will the creators decide it is best to kill every replicant there is. But alas it is not that simple, since the creators made them to be exactly like humans only better it is difficult to determine who is human and who is replicant without observing emotions. This is when we learn that Deckard must hunt down the 6 replicants that have come back to earth. However one of them, Rachael, doesn't realise she is a robot so Deckard chooses to spare her and this is when the movie takes a turn to the cliche and Deckard develops feelings towards Rachael. Whilst a very brief overview of the plot line there isn't really very much more to it. 

Blade Runner is a film to watch with your brightness turned all the way up as it is very poorly lighted in order to create the effect of a densely populated city with a serious pollution problem. Taking into consideration when it was made Blade Runner did have one of the most amazing sets of its time, with so many amazingly detailed settings it goes to show movies don't need to make everything CGI to make a decent film. However just because the sets were good doesn't make it a good film. I get that the idea was to try and create a very dank setting to surround it with mystery but in some places it's so dark I realise why the original version had a voice over explaining parts. The establishing shots used throughout the movie do show off what an amazing job Scott did of creating this other world and the close ups help us to see what characters are actually important and which ones are irrelevant. 

Whilst this film is considered a cult classic my opinions on it differ depending on whether I'm watching the original version or the final cut. If you are looking for a plot line that hasn't had much thought put into it or a sci-fi movie that uses every cliche in the book the Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' is the film for you.