Unique and endlessly fascinating

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2008)

Someone once commented that most great books are either seminal or unique. The same applies to movies. 2001 is an example of a seminal movie; it gave a new start to the genre and spawned many good films that built both on its concepts and its effects techniques.
Blade Runner is unique. No-one has made a movie quite like it before or since. Although it has deep roots in film noir and early SF - as far back as "Metropolis" - and other movies such as the "Nineteen Eighty-four" of that year have used somewhat similar gritty near-future worlds, none have the breadth of vision and incredible, mesmerizing atmosphere of this movie.
I gave this film a '9' a couple of years ago, having recently read the Philip K. Dick book on which it is based; I felt at the time it departed too far from the book, and "docked" it one point in consequence. Watching the Final Cut with a longer perspective, I believe it deserves to be judged only as itself, a movie, and as such it gets one of my few 10's.
If that weren't enough, the remastering of the already brilliant sound track into Dolby 5.1 in the Final Cut would take it over the top; if I could give it an extra half-point for that alone, it would get a 10.5. Even with my bottom-of-the-line home theater equipment, at one point an air-car audibly travelled, I swear, 30 feet through the back wall of my apartment. This is almost the only movie I can think of that I listen to the complete soundtrack music - 2 CDs - for the sheer pleasure of the music and sound-scape.
The ambiguities and different versions and the extreme views expressed in the forums indicate clearly how deeply this movie affects people -- pro or sometimes con. It is not a movie that anyone can be indifferent to, unless perhaps they are totally uninterested in the genre. I see more in it every time I watch it.