Is Blade Runner actually a good movie? That is a question I ask myself whenever I watch it or even just hear Blade Runner mentioned. Now that I have watched it again, is there a clear answer? No. The fact there is not an answer makes me think Blade Runner is not, in fact, amazing, but that does not mean it cannot be a good movie. Blade Runner likely exists at number 97 on the AFI Top 100 for other reasons.

The science fiction genre is a personal favorite. Worlds and technologies are limited only by the boundaries of imagination. Stories can be original and free because the rules of life are different; they do not need to conform to expectations. Blade Runner is one of the “old timers” that created the gritty, dirty, overpopulated future settings that one will often see in science fiction movies portraying a world that appears to have given up. Blade Runner’s staying power in sci-fi lexicon has as much to do with how it depicts the world as the fact it was one of the first, if not the first, to thoroughly create that type of world. Blade Runner today would be white noise. Blade Runner in 1982 was transformational. Additionally, the foundational content was written by legendary Phillip K. Dick. Oh, by the way, this takes place in November 2019, so real-world humanity is still missing the bar on flying cars and continuing to use eighties television screens and decor.

While the film inspired its successors, Blade Runner gives me itches that I cannot scratch, and those keep me from heaping praise upon it. I like director Ridley Scott’s work and will always watch one of his movies. Ridley Scott, however, apparently did not like the 1982 theatrical release which is the version I watched. Mr. Scott also does not seem capable of making up his mind on what would make him actually like the movie, so viewers end up getting the theatrical release, a director’s cut, an international director’s cut, and a final cut. That is four versions. That is four versions of a movie that is a little boring and quite depressing to watch. In that regard at least, Blade Runner succeeds. The world is so bleak and overcrowded with people and overbearing technology that I do not want it. I do not want to exist in that place nor do I want think about how the world got to that state. I especially do not want to dwell on a lackluster Harrison Ford who I have never felt was right for his role as the titular character. Blade Runner is really a depressing movie, and because of that, I seldom have the desire to rewatch.

Now that I have done an excellent sell-job, why should you watch it?

• It is a foundational sci-fi film that likely has inspired some aspect of every sci-fi movie since – Blade Runner is drenched in sci-fi tropes
• It will make you happy the November 2019 of our lives is not the November 2019 of the movie
• There are characters who should have more meaning, but that meaning is never defined. This will cause you to spend time trying to figure out why that character existed, because he or she did not really do anything…or did they?
• Any film that gets four versions has to be iconic, right?
• Ridley Scott begins to pull you into his Tyrell/Weyland-Yutani universe

Number 96 is a Spike Lee Joint: Do The Right Thing

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