Review for "The Final Cut (2007)"

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2018)

Loose adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" had six different versions, until in 2007 "The Final Cut" was released. This seventh version allowed Ridley Scott to finally get the film closest to his original vision, without test audiences and studio pressures twisting it. I won't go into differences between versions and reasons why there's so many of them, because I didn't see them all and you can always google it.
"Blade Runner" is one of those movies that should be seen in theater. It's made for big screen and you can't fully experience its visual magnificence by watching it at home. It would also be blasphemy to use lousy plastic speakers while watching this piece of art, not only because of Vangelis's music, but because overall excellent sound.
Story develops in 2019, when nature is destroyed, human race colonized outer space and androids are used as slaves. The last generation of androids are almost undistinguishable from humans in body and mind, so there's a risk that they develop emotions and become unpredictable and dangerous. For that reason they are given life span of only four years and they are forbidden on Earth. Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Brion James and Joanna Cassidy are four of such Replicants who killed bunch of people, hijacked a ship and came to Earth to find their maker, in hope he could stop them from dying in four years. Harrison Ford is Blade Runner, member of special police unit whose job is to track Replicants on Earth and kill them on sight. Both sides, from their own point of view, have justified causes for their actions, so even if Blade Runner is our leading character you are meant to root for, if you put yourself in Replicant's shoes you'll realize that they didn't have much of a choice and you would probably do the same in their place. Movie doesn't serve all answers on a silver plate, some things are left to us to interpret and it opens some moral questions that will make you think.
Performances of all actors are great, characters are very convincing, Sean Young and Harrison Ford have nice chemistry, and overall atmosphere achieved by Scott and Vangelis is stunning. Based on audio-visual magnificence and essential issues it deals with, "Blade Runner" could be compared to Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) and Kubrick's and Spielberg's cooperation "Artificial Intelligence" (2001), and I think it's safe to say those are three greatest SF movies made to this day. If you are interested in A.I. subgenre of SF, I would, beside these three, also recommend Spike Jonze's "Her" (2013) and Chris Columbus "Bicentennial Man" (1999). I must emphasize that last two are in my top five only because of their story, while in every other aspect they are far below any comparison with first three.
10/10