Great atmosphere, visually groundbreaking, little plot, very slow

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2017)

The movie setting reminds me of a crossover between a monster flick and a futuristic film noir. The world of Blade Runner looks incredibly atmospheric and it's totally convincing: Dark, lived in, gritty, dirty, mysterious, hostile. I wish modern movies would be more like this - not CGI built worlds that feel sterile and are forgettable!
The two weaknesses of this movie are the slow pacing and Ford's performance. I'll elaborate in a second. Even if you consider it to be a thriller, the few action scenes only drive the movie slowly and tension is not built up as focused as in Scott's Alien. The movie takes almost 2 hours but we learn almost nothing about the characters. Some might argue this is OK since the replicants don't have the past like humans and also miserable Deckard (even if you don't subscribe to Scott's claim that he was intended to be a replicant) lacks a bit of humanity.
It is worth noting that your viewing experience might suffer from picking a "bad" version of the movie. There seems to be a consensus that the Final Cut is probably the best choice. On paper the voice-over of Harrison Ford might have been a good idea as it could clear some confusions of viewers and also it gives the movie another film noir touch. But allegedly Ford disagreed and tried to intentionally sabotage the decision with a horrible voice-over performance. Apart from that Harrison Ford is not bad in this movie but not great either. The smirky Han Solo face he sometimes puts on is a bit misplaced for Deckard's character. And of course, Rutger Hauer steals the show!