Aesthetically powerful, slow philosophical Sci-Fi

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2017)

This film imposes a difficult exercise for the critic. On one hand, it depicts powerful concepts, but on the other hand as a film lacks quite a bit in terms of pace and content. So basically put, its narrative is greater than its own self. The film is a much, much lesser effort than the themes it depicts.
Young Harrison Ford does alright, while Hauer (the villain) is decent as well but so much of this film is in the things it hints at rather than the things it actually actively does. Just Hauer himself is more a compelling character on an aesthetic level really.
The scenery is superb in places, really very impressive stuff visually for a 1982 production. But as so often with Ridley Scott sci-fi's, we're given a lot of arty stuff, of the rarest more sophisticated kind, along with very deep philosophical themes... but his films seem to always have that discrepancy in pacing and in actually developing those themes. This film borders on the genius in what it scratches on, but never achieves that genius because of how linear the scenes are, how excessively paced down the development occurs, and simply, how much the film focuses on all other things but those philosophical themes.
If you'd catch that film at any random point and watch on, you'd never think it was anything more than one of those hot crime type scifi's from the 80's. It's only towards the end we're revealed all the depth that was supposedly hiding in this work. But it's too late by then. A film with such conceptual density needs to, while still maintaining subtlety in execution, make it clear what it's about. Instead, we're really given a succession of scenes with little actual value in themselves: a common, linear body of sequences with ordinary, underwhelming events happening. The fight scenes are long and often in bad taste, most scenes are in themselves totally forgettable, and what really is praised in this one is the narrative and philosophical implications from the very end, so not the film itself but what it talks about.
So that's watching a full two hours of very ordinary, highly paced sci-fi, for just the one powerful scene at the end with the big quotes and all the poetry. It's totally underwhelming in light of what's put in the works. An artisan/craftsman needs to make his works shine and highlight its most precious qualities, not conceal or smother them while other aspects completely dominate the equation.
As trivia, this is a film that's influenced the band Fear Factory enormously, the band quoting many moments like: "I want more life - it's too bad she won't live... but then again who does - that's what it is to be slaved"... and one must pay tribute to the use of the then very modern synth-based atmospheric soundtrack and how it mixes so well with the blueish/metallic overtone on the visuals, with the rain at the end and that poetic, genuinely deep moment. "Our memories, like tears in the rain".
As an ultimate philosophical ideal, this film is profoundly nihilistic. It's clearly saying man and machine are virtually the same thing so long as they are merely as intelligent, so long as they are sentient beings with memories. So no place for the soul, or a god. Organic=artificial, and there's no profound meaning to life.
The other thing is this film has an interesting twist, but again, does little in the way of clarity there.
A sympathy 7/10.