Blade Runner — A Short Review

The famous sci-fi film, Blade Runner (1982) is a marvel at the time it was made but not quite executed to it’s fullest potential. The lacking explanation from the eyes of a modern viewer is what really jumps out, however we have to sit back and remember that the special effects were truly remarkable for the time of production. It’s kind of like Jurassic Park, Avatar, and the big block buster movie hits that objectively weren’t great movies in the style of writing and directing but were dazzling audiences left and right. The plotline involving the lack of humanity and surplus of robotic beings wasn’t very well explained. So many people are gone. So many electronic replicas exist. But why. At least in WALL-E we had a real thorough examination and explanation as to why the people had left earth and why the robots were in such high demand and surplus. I feel like there was a lot to discover still with the plots of the film, but that ultimately the writing takes a back seat to the flashy presentation of it all. This film is more of a “science fiction just to be science fiction”, as opposed to “here’s a story that just happens to take place in a science fiction type environment”.

As much as I don’t love the writing, I must give credit to the “purpose” of the film. The juxtaposition between the human replicas and the human beings, the outlandish screens and holographic beings, just the job name of “blade runner”, those are just really cool things. I have seen the recent remake of the film as well, which was seemingly unnecessary because of the regularity we have in today’s society of these technological marvels. Overall, I would not say that this was a “great” film. I’m easily entertained and it did do it’s job in that regard, but I think it should be taken with a little bit of understanding that it wasn’t meant to be great, it was meant to wow.