Blade Runner

blade_runner

Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott’s follow up to Aliens(1979) is regarded as one of the most popular and influential Science Fiction movies of all time. All though at it’s time of release it was a Box office failure and received bad marks from Critics having to go up against Steven Spielberg’s ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)  in the same year. The Academy gave it two Award nominations without any Oscars, in 2007 the American Film Institute named Bladerunner the 97th greatest American film ever produced. Also in 2008 AFI also placed Bladerunner sixth in the Top 10 of the Science Fiction Genre, going up against films such as Alien (1979), ET (1982), Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977) and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey.

Blade Runner is a Futuristic Sci-Fi Detective Thriller about the retired ex Police/Bounty hunter Rick Deckard, who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment. Deckard’s mission is to search for rouge replicants ( A replicant is a bio-engineered or bio-robotic being) that escaped from an off world colony in a violent uprising. Their mission is to find their creator and prolong their short four year life span (they only live for four years to keep them from evolving and getting emotions).

Bladerunner has some of the best visuals of its time , the main man behind the visuals is Artist Syd Mead who was inspired by Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey, Mead was also  production designer for the visually stunning TRON (1982), which is als0 considered one of the greatest Sci Fis of all time. Bladerunner is loosely based around the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which tells the story of Deckard who is living in a post apocalyptic world after most of the worlds population was killed in World War Terminus which wiped out most of the animals and Earth, Deckard’s faced with retiring 6 Nexus-5 Androids that have escaped from an off world planet. Although Titled “Bladerunner”, Ridley Scott’s Adaptation has little to do with the Alan E. Norse novel with the same title. From production to release, Blade Runner was ahead of its time, visual, idyllically and mentally. 

An enduring classic that has conquered such films as George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, Blade Runner is hands down one of the best films in existence.

The Verdict: Excellent

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *