Let’s be honest, the most I was hoping for from this film was “not actually disgracing the original”. Even when Denis Villeneuve was announced I only allowed myself a little flicker of hope, but the initial reactions are overwhelmingly positive. I am now officially excited.
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Marwood says
I have managed to avoid almost every image, trailer and story about this film.
I am expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.
I don’t want to see it and at the same time can’t wait to see it.
Please let it be be good. Please don’t let it besmirch the original film.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Fire up the C-beams, we’re going off-world.
*grins excitedly*
policybloke says
I’ll see you at the Tannhauser Gate
Bingo Little says
I’ve seen it. It’s good.
Sewer Robot says
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: git.
Marwood says
I’ve never said it before. But, yeah. Git.
H.P. Saucecraft says
“Good”? It’s good? What kind of review is that?
Bingo Little says
The kind that doesn’t spoil anything for anyone, or breach my employment contract.
Vulpes Vulpes says
I keep a VM running Windows 95 just so I can play the Blade Runner PC game from time to time. I have the game book with all the possible endings and everything. 1024 x 768 never looked so good. Sad, but true.
paulwright says
In the same boat. Wished they wouldn’t. Then dreaded that they had. Now the rave reviews have sort of convinced me I should give it a go.
H.P. Saucecraft says
I’m waiting for the fan edition with all the deleted scenes edited back in and the original ending.
Sniffity says
Does the new one have a voice-over?
H.P. Saucecraft says
I liked the voice-over. I liked the director’s cut without the voice-over. I liked the tacked-on “happy ending”. I liked the director’s cut without it. I liked the meticulous-obsessive fan edition. I liked the original soundtrack album, and the fan-compiled Esper Edition soundtrack. I liked the PKD novel it was adapted from. In short, I like everything that’s Blade Runner. Over and over again.
Arthur Cowslip says
You sound slightly flippant, but I agree with you!
I never saw the problem with the voice over – it sounded fabulously world weary, helped flesh out the world and emphasised the noir theme. And that original ending I always found quite moving – driving off, looking for a bit of happiness even though he knows it’s impossible.
And the tweaks and improvements of the two revised versions created equally valid alternatives – I genuinely wouldn’t be able to choose which I prefer overall.
H.P. Saucecraft says
No flippin’ flippancy intended! It’s one of the two movies I love unreservedly (the other being 2001), and they both “just keep on giving”, never becoming stale after countless viewings. I don’t see how a sequel to either (and that semi-dreadful 2010 has its fans) could re-bottle the lightning.
(Have you seen the alternative ending included in the fan edit? There’s a brilliant line that I won’t spoil for anyone here that works as a perfect coda).
Arthur Cowslip says
A fan edit? Don’t think I have, no. I’ve only ever watched the official DVD.
H.P. Saucecraft says
There are a few fan versions out there. The one I have is the longest version available, and very nicely done. Versions combined, deleted scenes from workprints edited back in, although some are in lower quality. Doesn’t matter. Goggle is your friend!
Arthur Cowslip says
Ah yes. Looked it up now. I see the final line you mean. Yeah, I’ve watched all the extra footage stuff on the DVD. I dunno if I would like to sit through a whole version with it all edited back in. A step too far maybe!
I’ve just watched the original theatrical cut tonight. As good as always. In the mood for this new one coming out now.
Arthur Cowslip says
I’m so worried about this. The trailers look…. okay.
The first film seemed so much like a magic accident that I just can’t imagine a self-conscious continuation of the story actually working.
Blade Runner is one of those films that I really struggle to talk about because it’s so hard to sum up. It kind of touches on a load of different sci-fi and noir tropes without really being ‘about’ any one. It feels loose, dreamlike and improvisational, but simultaneously seems designed within an inch of its life. It feels like absolutely everyone involved all had a slightly different idea of what kind of film they were making. And I also suspect that it’s more style than substance – that most cardinal of celluloid sins, but not a sin that ever bothered me about any film.
So how could anyone hope to bottle that again?
We’ll see. The Trainspotting sequel surprised me (and showed that you CAN go back again), and Rogue One showed that reverential fan fiction can be excellent and moving. So let’s hope it joins those instead of stuff like (shudder) Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.
Kid Dynamite says
It’s definitely not rubbish.
Only time and repeated viewings will tell if it has the legs and thematic depth of the original, but on first watch it’s a big thumbs up. Too early for spoilery talk about the story, but I will say that visually it is stunning. The whole production design is superb – it really does feel like the city from the original after another thirty years of environmental degradation and man-made catastrophe – and some of the effects work is brilliant. It is relentlessly grim and downbeat, but hey, so am I.
ruff-diamond says
Has it stopped raining yet?
JustB says
Yes but…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAkYhGCf3yo