The Blade Runner Test

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2003)

I recently read a review of "Daredevil" (don't bother seeing it) in which the author asserted "you don't go to a movie like this expecting 'Scarface' or 'The Godfather'" True, these are in a different genre of film and there really can't be a good comparison. You can, however compare a scifi or superhero movie to Blade Runner (the director's cut).

With a scifi film, you have to suspend your disbelief or you can't enjoy it at all. A good scifi film, though, has its own internal logic and rules, and how well a writer and director manage to do this is the best measure of the quality of a scifi film. No movie I have seen yet beats Blade Runner.

The story is deep and rich and has it's own history, the characters, especially the androids, are human. They struggle with life and mortality, they do what they must to survive. The atmosphere is a wonderful noir style that has never been equalled by another scifi film. (Terry Gilliam comes the closest) The plot is subtle enough that the central question of Deckard's humanity is barely mentioned, yet shadows the film 20 years later.

Whenever I watch a scifi/fanatasy/superhero film, I look for it to be as good as Blade Runner. It proves that a scifi film can be done well, and shames the crap that so many directors are trying to pass of to us.