Despite the fact I am a huge fan of the science fiction genre, I had never seen this movie until last night. I did see Blade Runner 2049 a couple of years ago but never this one, the original. The story takes place in a very futuristic city with a typical cyberpunk world. However, it might surprise you to know this is supposed to be the year 2019. Clearly, our world is nowhere near as advanced as it is depicted in this film from the 80s.
In this futuristic place, the development of robots has reached such an advanced state that some of them are even indistinguishable from humans, this type of robot is called "replicant" and they are usually physically stronger than normal humans. Their presence is heavily controlled and those that are on Earth illegally are hunted down and destroyed. This is the task the main character has to do, hunt down a few replicants and get rid of them.
Since these replicants are almost the same as a human being, differentiating them is very difficult. This is the reason they developed special tests that knowledgeable people could apply to potential replicants and base on the answers conclude if the tested person is indeed a replicant or a human.
As an action movie this film is fine but where it really shines is in providing a spectacular cyberpunk world that looks super intriguing. It is especially surprising knowing this was all designed and created back in the 80s.
Blade Runner certainly pioneered the cyberpunk look and I think recent productions such as the Netflix series Altered Carbon couldn't have existed without taking inspiration from the original Blade Runner. I bet the video game that's yet to be released, Cyberpunk 2077, also took a lot of inspiration from this scifi masterpiece from the 80s.
Knowing the basic plot, it is easy to expect what type of scene and events we will see in the film. The main character will begin to investigate, he will face challenges finding the necessary information, and some fights, chasing and other action scenes will naturally ensue.
I felt that some dialogues scratched the surface of a philosophical take, but in this regards, it didn't come even close to the excellent conversations that can be found in the original anime version of Ghost in the Shield.
This movie is so well-known that I am sure I don't need to clear up anything about it or give specific recommendations related to who should watch it. As I mentioned before, the best part of it is the cyberpunk world, that alone could make it worthy of a rewatch if you haven't seen this film in a while.
The best
- Excellent cyberpunk world. It is incredible this was done in the 80s.
The worst
- It felt slow-paced at times.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/ Review: AAA In numbers: 8/10
