An excellent genre mash-up

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2015)

I see Blade Runner as a hybrid of three different genres: sci-fi, art-house, and film noir.
One thing I've long appreciated about sci-fi is that, at it's best, it provides a platform for a treatment of philosophical topics. The "what makes us human?" topic is a meaty one, and they give it the treatment it deserves in Blade Runner. The opening scenes with the Voight-Kampff tests are an excellent lead-in to this discussion as they challenge the viewer to ask themselves "How would I react in these situations?" That engagement with the viewer does a lot to draw them into the story. The vivid setting elements pull the viewer in even deeper.
Art-house films are more of an acquired taste; they require some patience from the viewer. 2001 kind of set the example for art-house/sci-fi, and I think Blade Runner was following in it's wake. A lot of people badmouth Alien 3 for similar reasons. The big issue there, I think, was that audiences were expecting a sci-fi/action movie (like they got with Aliens (2)) and were served up a slower-paced, more arty, piece instead. Mismanaged expectations. Zardoz is another art-house/sci-fi film along these lines.
Classic Noir films (e.g. 40s-50s era) are typified by bleak tones: people are trapped in unpleasant situations, the world around them is corrupt, and the characters typically drive toward a doomed fate. (The "Private Eye giving a voice-over" is also a hallmark of the noir genre.) I've typically described noir as "part crime drama, part psychological thriller, part bittersweet romance." Neo-noir builds on the genre and typically adds the following elements: identity crises, memory issues / subjectivity, and -- most importantly -- technological problems and their social ramifications. All of these things describe Blade Runner to a 'T'.﻿