Wha?

Rating: 3/10 (12 March 2009)

The text intro to the film might give you the idea that it's going to question the ethics of slavery. Is it ethical to use artificial humans beings as slaves? Is it ethical to have them murdered when they rebel? But these questions are never addressed. Instead you get a film where the hero kills without question, showing only a hint of remorse once through its entirety. Add to that the most anti-climactic ending in existence and you've got a real "Wha?" film. OK, so it's not what I was expecting. Well, the whole style of the movie - the music, the setting, the characters - everything oozes film noir. If you expect that, I guess you won't be too disappointed. But do you get sixty minutes of atmospheric shots spliced in between twenty five minutes of conversation that seems to leading up to something (but surprise! never does) and five minutes of two confusing fight scenes. I'll give Blade Runner credit, though: the setting is visionary, convincing and appropriately claustrophobic. I had no problem getting absorbed into the retro sci-fi setting, but maybe that's just me. The acting is just good as well, but Harrison Ford's narration is dry and robotic for some reason. Seems out of place in a film where he acts perfectly fine everywhere else. But the bottom line is this film toys with your mind. It makes you think each event is leading up to something when nothing ever does.
******SPOILER ALERT****** And the scene in the apartment? Is Ford trying to rape the female replicant? It's really hard to understand what's going on there. He gets hot over her, tries to make a move, she tries to escape, he stops her and makes her say she wants it. And at the end of the movie they ride off in the sunset like lovers. Strange behavior for a hero character, I must say. ******SPOILER ALERT END******
Well, that's it. Watch it on television if you must, but don't expect much. Hell, go play Deus Ex or Beneath a Steel Sky and enjoy your cyberpunk for a change.