Beautiful - but very overrated movie

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2008)

Maybe i have just not seen this movie enough times (as many reviewers here suggest one should do) to appreciate it. I saw it for the first time around 1988 on VHS and thought it was a boring story. And I was slightly surprised  since I had thought it to be a completely different kind of movie. More action to be precise. And there is a good reason for that. The title "Blade Runner"  It just don't sound like a "deep" and "philosophical" movie. Secondly, the poster looks like it's a fast action movie  with Deckard looking alert holding his gun up. 20 years later the final cut is released and I must say that this last version is beautiful. The flyovers and panorama views through the film are astounding, taking to account it was made in 1982. And there is still that ever present feeling of emptiness. But still those are nearly the only things i like about it. The acting is too cartoonish. The replicants look so robot-like that a device for detecting them seems unnecessary. Then there are several examples of things that are changed to look futuristic - like the neon umbrellas. They look so ridiculous it makes my toes curl. Plastic coats (seems like a bad idea in a humid environment like that) etc. etc. The pace of the story is mostly so dragging slow. And that is not because we need to admire the settings, no the story is just not good enough for a full movie. Deckard needs to find 4 replicants and kill them. That he does, one at a time, without any interesting storytelling. He falls in love with a (girl) replicant. And then it ends. It is just too simple to be interesting. This movie tries to be both a thriller and a philosophical sci-fi movie .. and that is the key to why I don't like it. It just doesn't work.