Are We This Cruel?

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2010)

I understand that things were done to the original film which I saw in a movie theater. It's been so long that I have no basis for comparison. Watching the Director's cut, I found it as engaging as I remember. It's sad when we have a hero who is basically a cold blooded murderer. The evil rest with ourselves. Can we really destroy a sentient being and have a moral justification. Once these replicants began to think for themselves, do we lose our right to them. Think of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as Victor chases the monster across the ice. The creature cries out to him as his maker that he is part of him. These are seen as monsters, but they have no control over what they have become. Their memories are theirs, even though they were implanted. This is such a bleak view of our future and it plays very well in 2010. It is a feast for the eyes and is much better science fiction than most films made since. Ford's performance is intense and driven. This is an excellent film. I was curious why Leonard Maltin gave it one-and-a-half stars.