Slow-paced and Dull, BLADE RUNNER Is All Looks

Rating: 5/10 (1 June 2002)

I trying hard to understand why Ridley Scott's 1982 "classic" BLADE RUNNER has such a lofty reputation. True, the special effects were outstanding for 1982. Okay, I'll admit it, the effects were even good by today's standards. Harrison Ford and the rest of the cast give good performances. There were quite a few things to like. Unfortunately this movie suffers because it basically has 45 minutes of plot stretched out into two hours. There are LONG gaps between dialogue. Quite a bit of screen time is given just looking at the scenery (which, while impressive, gets tiresome after you've seen the same thing 3 or 4 times). The grim future depicted in this film has served as a visual inspiration to many science fiction movies released in the last 20 years (The Fifth Element, A.I., and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones come to mind), but that alone is not enough reason to declare the film a classic.