[Movie Review] Blade Runner: The Final Cut & Blade Runner 2049

Well, we are 7 days into 2020 and I’ve already watched 10 films, lol.  I didn’t think I watched a lot of movies but judging from the comments on the last post, I guess I do.  I’m thinking about posting here once in a while on what I have watched.  I won’t write about every single movie but I’ll highlight what I think is some good stuff.  Let’s see how long this lasts…

Blade Runner: The Final Cut & Blade Runner 2049

I finally got around to watching these.  I remember watching Blade Runner as a kid and hating it.  To me, Harrison Ford was Indiana Jones and Han Solo, not this quiet Deker Deckard guy who seems bored to be in a future with flying cars.  I appreciated its slower pace a lot more after re-watching it in my early teens.  Then The Director’s Cut of the film came out.  Ford’s “hard-boiled detective” style voiceovers were gone, the music was changed, and the ending was weird.  It was the only version I could find on DVD.  I hated Blade Runner again.

The Final Cut came out in 2007 but I wasn’t interested in revisiting the movie again until the sequel, Blade Runner 2049, began making the rounds on the movie channels.  They would air it and The Final Cut back to back, so I hit record on both.  I’m glad I did.  This version is apparently the only one they allowed director Ridley Scott to have complete control.  The voice-overs haven’t returned but for the first time, I was able to clearly follow the plot.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut takes place in a dystopian “future”.  November 2019 to be exact.  Harrison Ford plays a blade runner named Deckard, whose job it is to hunt down and kill retire Replicants, androids who are built to imitate humans in look and actions.  Replicants are illegal on earth.  The scientists create them with high intelligence, but over time they become more self-aware, and their ability to handle human emotions is stunted.  They are given a four-year life span as a fail-safe against them going haywire before too long but some are ahead of the curve and start causing trouble.  The story is well told as the ethics of the humans who create the Replicants and Deckard’s job to destroy them is constantly questioned.

I won’t reveal much of Blade Runner 2049‘s plot since it would spoil Blade Runner, but I can confirm it is the next logical step in Deckard’s story.  My only issue with the sequel is the length (2hr 44m) and pacing (All due respect to Ryan Gosling but it takes an hour to get to Harrison Ford).  I would have liked it a lot more if the fat was trimmed.  While watching I thought… jeez, Old Man Scott needs to listen to his editor, but as it turns out 2049 was directed by someone else.  I read in an interview with Scott where he stated how he would have cut it down by 30 minutes if given control.  Well, maybe we will see that after “Blade Runner 2049: The Final Cut” is released in 2049.

I’m positive my enjoyment of 2049 was enhanced by the fresh viewing of The Final Cut and I would have been lost otherwise.  I’d give Final Cut a spin and then try 2049 if you’re craving for more.  Both are #MarsApproved.