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‘Blade Runner’ at 40

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71–80 of 435 posts

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#71

This is one movie that has put me to sleep every time I tried to watch it. I have never seen it beginning to end.

> This is one movie that has put me to sleep every time I tried to watch it. Try a matinee ?

Not the OP, but that’s no guarantee. I’ve seen Wizard of Oz twice as an adult, both times in a movie theater, and both times I’ve fallen asleep.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#73
post #9

I am one of the 11 people on Earth that hates coffee. "Hate" isn't strong enough. Even "despises" I'm not sure goes far enough. It tastes disgusting to me. I can't even stand the smell. This has led me at times to wonder if I'm crazy or if everyone else is. I do notice a ton of people consume a ton of sugar in their coffee so it seems like many don't really like coffee. They like sugar. But I digresss. I have the sam…

> It's a product of its time too. I'd put it in the 80s Cyberpunk bucket where the noir surroundings and mega corporations are a product of xenophobia, basically.

This is a super interesting critique of basically everything cyberpunk, that I've only recently come across. I still don't totally buy the xenophobia angle, because to me it just came across as a projection of hyper-corporate/capitalist. Like it's an extrapolation out from where we were, but the problem isn't that it's foreigners, it's that it's hyper-capitalist. In blade runner the world has been globalized to the point where we don't recognize downtown LA, but that's not actually what's wrong with the world - big faceless corporations and environmental destruction are what's wrong with the world. While the environment itself is heavily influenced by asian imagery, Tyrell and Weyland-Yutani aren't very strongly coded asian. i.e. Tyrell is run by an Elon Musk type engineer-ceo, and Weyland is a decidedly white name to go along with the Yutani part.

I'm still digesting this idea tho, I definitely need to re-watch with this in mind. There is definitely some playing with xenophobia there, just... how much? and is it re-enforcing it, or is it challenging it?

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#74
post #51
post #9

I am one of the 11 people on Earth that hates coffee. "Hate" isn't strong enough. Even "despises" I'm not sure goes far enough. It tastes disgusting to me. I can't even stand the smell. This has led me at times to wonder if I'm crazy or if everyone else is. I do notice a ton of people consume a ton of sugar in their coffee so it seems like many don't really like coffee. They like sugar. But I digresss. I have the sam…

you sound like those type of guys that try to be 'cool' by disliking what other people like. Blade Runner is a great movie for its time and it has inspired a lot of artists. It is a Noir (Sci-fi), and the type of movie that only adults would appreciate, due to its storyline. If you are under 25, probably it is not a good movie for you. Same with 2001: A Space Odyssey, which came much earlier. any other movies of the…

I can only recommend "The science of Interstellar" book as a great companion to the movie, explaining the physics side of it. As for Interstellar itself, I watched it the year it came out and I thought it was a pretty cool science-fiction movie. I rewatched it last year sometime after my father died of covid and I appreciated it from a whole different angle. Suffice to say, I don't remember the last time I cried watching a movie.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#76

Calling it the "greatest of all time" seems like a total exaggeration. That being said, I've found it interesting that a film that in many ways seems so dated manages to have such a hypnotic effect on me every time I watch it. I think it's just one of Ridley Scott's directorial gifts that he manages to conjure up such an infectious mood in so many of his films. Of course, the other example is Alien . I definitely lov…

> Calling it the "greatest of all time" seems like a total exaggeration I was thinking this at first but I've struggled with a suggestion of a better, and critically more impactful/influential, movie in the genere.

I can't say which films were the most influential, but here's a list of ones which were at least as influential IMHO and also sort of stand on their own: Star Wars Trilogy (epic sci-fi), 2001: A Space Odyssey (hard sci-fi), The Thing (body horror sci-fi), Alien (body horror/dystopian sci-fi), Mad Max (post apocalyptic sci-fi), E.T. (family sci-fi? lol), The Terminator (post apocalyptic), Howard the Duck (still reading?), Predator (dunno?)

I could list a lot of others but I'll stop there.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it wasn’t particularly good, I really really wanted to like it and persevered through the whole thing… and it’s just a mess

I really enjoyed the aesthetic of it, I enjoyed the tone and even many of the major story elements but I found it so hard to track the story. It's unfortunate because the show had the great thematic elements (Mithraic vs atheist war -- mother as a godlike angel etc) and had amazing small details but lost itself somewhere in-between. Why was there a giant worm and why did everyone forget about the giant worm in Season…

It's a Ridley Scott problem.

Everything I've seen in the last several years that he's had a hand in (another example is Taboo) is visually amazing but confusing.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#78
post #9

I am one of the 11 people on Earth that hates coffee. "Hate" isn't strong enough. Even "despises" I'm not sure goes far enough. It tastes disgusting to me. I can't even stand the smell. This has led me at times to wonder if I'm crazy or if everyone else is. I do notice a ton of people consume a ton of sugar in their coffee so it seems like many don't really like coffee. They like sugar. But I digresss. I have the sam…

I have to ask then, what films do you like better than Interstellar?

Countless SF films. I found Interstellar very middle-drawer. I didn't hate it but certainly wasn't wowed by it.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#79
post #2

Oh crap; they cancelled Raised by Wolves: https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/raised-by-wolves-ca... Unbelievable! (Ridley Scott was involved with it.)

Sometimes I wish shows like this would be open to doing other stories with the same settings and actors. Like, you already have all the resources, so why not remix them? This kind of thing could work really well for Fantasy stories - you already have the locations, costumes, practical FX, actors - it seems like the script (and the setups) are just about the easiest thing to change. Meanwhile all the rest, music, editing, lighting, catering...it's already setup! Has anyone done this before? Is it a terrible idea?

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you saw it in the context of movies of its time you would understand the appeal, if not appreciate it. So many things imitate it that the most original parts seem like cliches. The other thing is that it holds up for most people, so that it is better when you go back to it because you see thing you missed the first time.

This is literally what “Seinfeld is unfunny” trope is about. The original, groundbreaking work gets quoted and used so much that a modern viewer doesn't see anything original in it anymore.

My ex wife is 16 years younger than me (from 1987). So I made her watch many movies from the 80's and 90's that I think are classics.

Well,most of the time she didn't apreciate them because she watched a lot of TV movies in her teens, and knew most of the plots and twists.

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