In between the high points-a spectacular foot chase through a series of narrow alleys, Rutger Hauer’s parting speech on a rain-pelted roof-there were stretches of tedium or thematic vagueness. Is Blade Runner a great movie, or just one that’s penetrated so deeply into the pop-cultural consciousness, its innovative production design imitated by virtually every sci-fi dystopia that’s come since, that we’ve canonized it by default? I remember thinking as a teenage movie snob that, visual and aural spectacle aside (those building-high geisha faces! That moody Vangelis soundtrack!), Scott’s neonoir thriller never quite hung together as a story. It’s impossible to start writing about Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve’s way-later sequel to Ridley Scott’s genre-changing 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, without working through a lifetime of accumulated responses to the original.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |