The Heir to Blade Runner

In anticipation for Blade Runner: 2049 I recently returned to one of my all time favourite films Blade Runner. It was such a major film at the time and its legacy still continues to this date. That said, I would still refer to this film as underrated. Almost forty years later the film still looks fantastic. The cyber-punk/future noir style has been nothing short of revolutionary. In alignment with that the film had philosophical depth as a result of inspiration from Philip K. Dick. Ever so rarely does a film amount with both style and substance on such a grand scale. Having previously worked on Alien, at the time it felt like Ridley Scott could do no wrong. He earned himself the reputation as the father of dark science fiction cinema. Years on Ridley Scott remains a legend but it feels as though his golden age has passed. He shifted away from the science fiction genre in an attempt to make other big blockbusters (like Gladiator) and films that would appeal more to the Academy Awards (American Gangster). Only recently has he returned to sci-fi and the reactions have been mixed. The highly anticipated Prometheus came as a disappointment for many hardcore Ridley Scott fans that thought of it as convoluted. Ridley Scott’s 2015 film The Martian was a pleasant surprise as a light and entertaining sci-fi film but still it lacked any major change and that prevented it from being a classic. The 2017 return to the Alien franchise titled Alien: Covenant had the same redeeming qualities but ultimately failed to break new ground yet again. Because of all this, when I discovered Denis Villeneuve (director of the critically acclaimed Awake) was directing Blade Runner: 2049 I thought it was for the best.

So it seems that Ridley Scott worked best in 70s/80s because it was an era that resonated well with his grimy future-retro aesthetic. I don’t watch Blade Runner because I think it is realistic and therefore intriguing representation of the future. I watch it because it is a hypnotic and imaginative view of the future. Some might say it was a dystopian film but I find the film to be highly engrossing nonetheless. There are things that don’t make a great deal of sense in a modern context such as the glass-screened computers with blocky pixels. Things like this don’t reflect reality but they draw me in. The release of Blade Runner had even caused stress for pioneering cyberpunk author William Gibson. At the time of Blade Runner’s release, William Gibson was writing his now classic novel Neuromancer. Blade Runner was a project that both excited and intimidated Gibson as he thought it would reveal the aesthetic of a cyberpunk world even better than he could possibly describe. Fortunately for Gibson, Neuromancer succeeded in its own right but his feelings towards Blade Runner were not without basis. It is a film that heavily depends on the visual experience and Ridley Scott was aware of this. Part of what made Blade Runner a classic is the time it was created. We could never expect another film like it and I wouldn’t want to. I am yet to see Blade Runner: 2049 but what I want is an entirely new film that takes inspiration from Blade Runner. With Denis Villeneuve directing, I have a good feeling that he will bring a breath of fresh air to the Blade Runner universe.