The trailer has dropped for Blade Runner's sequel, and honestly the only thing I'm excited about is that the director of Arrival is getting more work. I saw the original (I presume its final cut, as it was on Netflix) for the first time this summer during a sci-fi class, which had been preceded by a good deal of anticipation due to its status as one of the best sci-fi films ever made. Before we watched it we had to read Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and Lord, the style is mediocre. Granted, there were facets of it I liked: the elaboration on Pris and John's relationship, Decker's wife Iran and her fascination with depression as a way to feel, the false religion, but it was all tied around this episodic "why did we go here?" plotting smothered underneath Dick's insistence on hammering the reader over the head with unnecessary reiteration of who's speaking and doing what. It was a slog.
But that's the book, which mainly got put on the map by the film anyway. Surely that wouldn't be indicative of anything to come. Ridley Scott in his prime helming a Harrison Ford feature backed by a beautiful aesthetic that basically wrote the book on cyberpunk design? Sign me the fuck up. I strapped myself in, prayed the teacher wouldn't spend too long on his usual introduction, cozied up in my chair, and off we were!
And I came out of the experience feeling betrayed because I hated it. I hated the stripping of the aforementioned cool elements from the book, the lack of personable relationships, the cheesy Christian symbolism (Roy, why you got a dove?), the editing (Roy, I asked you a question), this insistence that I'm supposed to even feel a damn thing for Roy, the obvious visual metaphors, the feeling that its questions had all been asked before in better realized works, the tacked-on replicant ambiguity at the end. It all felt poorly constructed and meandering, like a bad anime. I mean, I empathized with poor Rachel and I still love the art style. That's something. I understand that it's supposed to be more of a treatise on its philosophical underpinnings about humanity, morality, the relationship between empathy and lifespan, etc., more so than a straight laced sci-fi film like Alien. I don't think I'm missing the theoretical beats or am too dumb to "get it." I just failed to experience that same emotional connection in the moment of watching it, and note that I'm someone that outright loves 2001: A Space Odyssey for Christ's sakes.
So am I missing something particularly vital? Should I watch it again with a particular point of view or mode of thinking
? Or is it simply not for me?
But that's the book, which mainly got put on the map by the film anyway. Surely that wouldn't be indicative of anything to come. Ridley Scott in his prime helming a Harrison Ford feature backed by a beautiful aesthetic that basically wrote the book on cyberpunk design? Sign me the fuck up. I strapped myself in, prayed the teacher wouldn't spend too long on his usual introduction, cozied up in my chair, and off we were!
And I came out of the experience feeling betrayed because I hated it. I hated the stripping of the aforementioned cool elements from the book, the lack of personable relationships, the cheesy Christian symbolism (Roy, why you got a dove?), the editing (Roy, I asked you a question), this insistence that I'm supposed to even feel a damn thing for Roy, the obvious visual metaphors, the feeling that its questions had all been asked before in better realized works, the tacked-on replicant ambiguity at the end. It all felt poorly constructed and meandering, like a bad anime. I mean, I empathized with poor Rachel and I still love the art style. That's something. I understand that it's supposed to be more of a treatise on its philosophical underpinnings about humanity, morality, the relationship between empathy and lifespan, etc., more so than a straight laced sci-fi film like Alien. I don't think I'm missing the theoretical beats or am too dumb to "get it." I just failed to experience that same emotional connection in the moment of watching it, and note that I'm someone that outright loves 2001: A Space Odyssey for Christ's sakes.
So am I missing something particularly vital? Should I watch it again with a particular point of view or mode of thinking
Don't do this to me
