Overrated

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 2009)

All in all, Blade Runner is a passable film, a 65-70 out of 100 (mainly on the strength of its technical achievement), but nowhere is it near great, much less the masterpiece its fans claim. Like its source novel, it has a few good ideas, more bad ones, a thin plot, trite and leaden dialogue, and poor characterizations, made all the worse by mediocre to bad acting, from the always overrated Ford, to the abysmal Young, to the over the top Hauer (aptly demonstrated by his silly soliloquy) to the lifeless Hannah (both of whose portrayals do nothing to engender sympathy for the Replicants), to the quirk-infested Olmos. Add in the chemistry lacking love story between Ford and Young, and the far too long sequences designed to simply show off the visuals and inner workings of Tyrell's corporation, the muddled plot (especially in the later non-voice-over versions), and the film is a classic triumph of 'style over substance.' Even that cliché grates, despite its aptness. Granted, it would not surprise me if claimants of the Deckard as Relicant posit point to the chemistry lacking love story as proof that both characters are inhuman, but Occam's Razor points to the simpler interpretation that it's just bad acting and writing.
Similarly, the overall film ultimately falls far short of its claimed greatness because it simply is never sure of what it wants to be- another strike against its 'visionary' claims. It has too many feet on too many boats that diverge- is it sci fi, is it existential, is it film noir, is it a character study? In truth, it has elements of all these and more, but not enough of any of them to make it work as one, much less all of these. In fact, the chief failing, on all scores, for this film, is that Ridley Scott really had no vision for the project, grafting elements from Alien and many of the other films mentioned in this essay, trying to take what worked from each, and ending up with a film that, in many ways, is a mess, and a dull one, at that. Yes, it has plenty of visions, but no single vision; and in its own myopia, Blade Runner's dystopia founders. And I doubt any further cuts or recuts can retire that ill.