This movie loses track of the few expectations it sets up, and the formlessness adds to a viewer's demoralization -- the film itself seems part of the atmosphere of decay.

Full Review | Sep 19, 2023

Ridley Scott ought to be a set decorator, rather than a director. In Blade Runner, he loses sight of the story while devoting all his attention to decor and lighting. The decor and lighting, it must be admitted, are stupendous.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 9, 2021

Still profound 18 years after its sell-by date, Blade Runner remains worthy of acclaim and analysis even as it exists in a "future" with very little resemblance to the one that came to pass.

Full Review | Nov 18, 2019

Ridley Scott has produced a new vision that is forbidding.

Full Review | Oct 17, 2018

Film noir cubed, science fiction a step beyond 2001.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2015

A masterpiece of dystopian science fiction on film.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 2, 2015

Too bad the filmmakers didn't try to recapture the modest virtues of the Dick novel, which (despite many flaws of its own) has a humor and humanity that are nowhere felt in 'Blade Runner.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2015

The contradictions that plague the movie are apparent from the outset.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2015

This is perhaps the only science-fiction film that can be called transcendental.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 7, 2011

It seems ageless, despite being set in 2019. This is a future more murky than shining, where hardened men move among the lowlife in a warren of streets lit like an Edward Hopper painting, below pyramid-like skyscrapers.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

As a display terminal for the wizardry of Designers Lawrence G. Paull, Douglas Trumbull and Syd Mead, the movie delivers.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2008

Paradoxically, Scott's crowded, misty, neon streetscape seems even murkier; fuzz I chalked up to VHS tapes is production designer Lawrence G. Paull dumping ashtrays in the air.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 22, 2008

This definitive print should be the last little push that "Blade Runner" needs to complete its 25-year journey from box office failure to cult favorite to full-blown classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 30, 2007

Blade Runner, in all its various, shimmering incarnations, is deathless.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 23, 2007

Twenty five years after its original release, the boldly titled and definitive-sounding Final Cut has arrived, and thankfully, it boasts editorial polishes and technical upheavals that'll have George Lucas dashing back to the cutting room.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 23, 2007

Blade Runner: The Final Cut plays better now than ever.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 16, 2007

Open the champagne: Blade Runner is finally just the way Ridley Scott wanted it. And it only took 25 years.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 16, 2007

There are no plot-altering additions or subtractions. But the digitally spruced print is gorgeous to look at and listen to.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 9, 2007

Much of the film's erotic charge and moral and ideological ambiguity stem from the fact that these characters are very nearly the only ones we care about.

Full Review | Nov 9, 2007

This is a seminal film, building on older classics like Metropolis or Things to Come, but establishing a pervasive view of the future that has influenced science fiction films ever since.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 9, 2007