visually stunning but one glaring flaw for me ruins it

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2008)

I saw Blade Runner on cable when it first came out. The best science fiction shows us a future that could possibly exist. The problem i had with Blade Runner then was the same problem I have with it now. It was released in 1982. At the time the year 2019 was only 37 years in the future. Extrapolating on current technology there was no way the world visualized in the film would exist only 37 years in the future. Advanced human androids, flying cars, and planetary colonies? I don't think so. This for me made the whole film strictly a fantasy. If the filmmakers had set it in the year 2119- a simple fix by simply changing the opening title card, it would have been much more believable. Even now with the year 2019 only 11 years in the future the world of Blade Runner is at least 150-200 years in the future.
Granted you could make the same argument for 2001 but that film was more accurate in that it showed a Pan Am shuttle(foreshadowing the space shuttle) and an orbital space station which is currently under construction(Albeit in a much simpler form).And there was nothing in that film which couldn't have existed if the Vietnam war had never happened. Blade Runner is simply not realistic given it's historical context. So while brilliant visually the film as science fiction doesn't work but as fantasy works very well. So simply put Blade Runner shows a world that could exist---BUT NOT IN THE YEAR 2019. 2119 yes. 2019? No.