Unique, engaging, moody, visually striking, thought-provoking

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2015)

It's funny. I've only seen this movie once and it was years ago and just on a computer screen and yet the movie is exactly the same as I remember. Either I have an incredible memory or Blade Runner has some magical quality that makes it unforgettable.
The tone makes this movie. The feel of it, the way it washes over you and stays with you afterwards is more significant than the story itself. It's dark and somewhat gloomy. But not depressing, just kind of sad or contemplative. It's refreshing that it's not trying to be funny or deep or clever. It just tells its story matter-of-factly. It weighs down on you over time. There are no light moments of comic relief (although there is plenty of subtle humour). That kind of tension is enjoyable when so many films are impatient and predictable.
It raises interesting questions about artificial life. What would it be like to realise that you were actually an android? A bit like Dark City and The Matrix, you have to ask yourself what you really know for sure. Are your memories real? Is that air you're breathing? The steady pace of the film allows you to fill the quiet moments with your own thoughts and considerations. It allows you to meditate on these themes, this futuristic world which we might one day live in.
Blade Runner could be one of the most influential films ever made. It's visual style is incredible. It's Gothic, dream-like, iconic and other things that I'm not good at describing. Many of the shots seem to have an immediate emotional or psychological impact, they mesmerise or relax you in some way. They sear into your memory. The music by Vangelis is also gorgeous and haunting. It fits with (or maybe sets) the mood of the movie perfectly.
Perhaps loneliness is another theme of Blade Runner. Deckard doesn't seem to have any family or friends. He doesn't say much. He doesn't smile or laugh or cry (nor do most of the characters). But you always have an intuitive sense of what he's thinking or feeling. Maybe the simplicity of the character is what makes him more believable and easy to relate to - we can project ourselves onto him.
The replicants sometimes show more emotion than the human characters. Sean Young is beautiful, her eyes are always alive even as her body is still. Rutger Hauer makes a very cool, fascinating villain. He is so calm and gentlemanly and yet ominous (a bit like Bane) and says so many poetic and insightful lines. It makes you wonder, what is humanity anyway? Why are we sad when someone dies? Did God create us with a purpose? Why did he give us our flaws?
I felt some of the violence was over-the-top and unnecessary. It didn't add to the story. But at least this isn't Prometheus.
Blade Runner is a must-see as far as movies go. It has similarities to so many other movies I can think of and yet it came out before all of them. It's a vivid sci-fi, film noir story. I have to give it a 10 because it is so unique and made me feel things I haven't felt in years. Feelings that are hard to put into words but which fill me with wonder about life's questions and make me feel more alive.