What's the best Blade Runner version? (Off-Topic)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 06:38 (2398 days ago) @ Funkmon

My dad has the directors cut on DVD. Is this the one to watch?

I heard bad stuff about final cut, and also bad stuff about director's cut, and tons of bad stuff about theatrical.

The theatrical version is fine if you want a hard-boiled detective story set in the future. The director's cut has more ambiguity, and is more of a sci-fi art house film. Big fans tend to prefer it, especially because it makes it easier to imbue the film with (perhaps not quite warranted?) deep philosophical significance. As far as I can tell, the final cut is the same as the director's cut with some color adjustments.

By the way, the new film is a bit of both, and may even be a better film, but it almost requires seeing the first one first. On some level it can never be better, though, because it can't have the impact of being first. I implore anyone who cares about science fiction on film to see both on as big a screen as they can find. Visually and aurally, they're both amazing.

IMHO, the big impact of Blade Runner is the world building. It showed us a future that was believable and tangible, and the impact of its visuals has been substantial. Perhaps with the exception of CRTs being everywhere, it still doesn't seem dated, which is amazing. That's almost besides the point, though. It's 2017, so Blade Runner is obviously not realistic given the timeline, yet the alternative future it presents still rings true.