Mind-bending, but Needs Better Balance

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2016)

Superb sci-fi. Yet its strengths are ironically also its weaknesses. The visuals dramatically underscore the dystopian future of LA. They're deep, dark, and unrelenting. Unfortunately, they're also spread on too thickly and widely, such that their noirish presence overshadows the plot's subtle themes. Those themes, as others abundantly point out, have to do with what it means to be human. The fact that the replicants, Roy and Rachael, begin to seem as human as Deckard by movie's end is a neat philosophical twist. Trouble is these key themes are easily overshadowed by the overwhelming visuals. Thus, many well-meaning viewers get bored by what appears an absence of storyline. Too bad that a better balance between story and visuals fails to develop. Nonetheless, there's much to recommend, as others detail, in this probing slice of sci-fi.
(In passing—It's no accident I think that the Bradbury building in downtown LA appears throughout the 2-hours. Famous for its use in such classic noirs as DOA {1950} and M {1951}, its use here may well be a homage from futuristic noir to the classic past.)