Unlike any other sci-fi

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2009)

I have to admit, the first time I saw Blade Runner a few years ago, it completely went over my head. Mostly, I was just confused by it. I didn't think it was bad, but then again, I really didn't know what to think.
I saw it again a few days ago, and it completely changed my mind. I'd rate it as one of my favorite sci-fi movies now. Seeing it again made me understand it in a way I hadn't before.
The atmosphere of the movie is engrossing. The Los Angeles of the future is nearly constantly rainy, dark, and swirling with fog. People walk away down streets with black umbrellas and a self-preserving, alienated kind of hurry. Lighted billboards for Coca Cola and Atari cut through the darkness (which oddly doesn't feel out of place). It definitely resonates film noir in a way rarely seen in movies today. The almost surreal visuals are a perfect match for the soundtrack by Vangelis. The mixture of synthesizer and saxophone definitely augments the futuristic '40s feel.
Harrison Ford as Deckard is actually really good. It seems like an odd role for him measured against Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but I think his understated presence in this is welcome vs. the action-star-going-in-shooting feel of some of his other roles.
Sean Young as Rachael does very well also. Her femme fatale character wouldn't have looked out of place in the Maltese Falcon, in my opinion. Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty had one of the most haunting monologues I've ever heard in a movie. Really. Watch it for yourself. It's unbelievable.
As for the two versions of the movie, the voice-over and non-voice-over version, I've seen both and don't really have a preference. I think both stand up well on their own merits. The voice-over version, even if Harrison Ford delivered it somewhat lamely, does fill in the cracks usefully and keeps to the detective-on-the-case format. The non-voice-over version is like 2001: A Space Odyssey in that it leaves more up to imagination and interpretation.
I'll watch this movie many more times and still never figure it out. It's got a mystique, a certain something that its viewers will never be able to put their fingers on. Rent it. Buy it. See it somehow. You won't regret it.