So What's good about Blade Runner?

•Special effects/scenery. A cornerstone of every great Sci-Fi movie is the special effects and scenery and Blade Runner does not disappoint in this aspect. A future L.A. filled with skyscrapers, giant billboards, and flying cars set the tone for the entire movie and these effects hold up well years later. There are few moments (whenever someone got shot) that shows Blade Runner’s age, but for the most part the movie still looks great and does a wonderful job of showing what America’s future could look like.

•Storyline. Blade Runner is not just an us vs. them or a robot vs. humans story (which it easily could have been). What makes this movie so brilliant is that it steps beyond this and delves into humanity vs. technology in a world where humans created the technology that is threatening it. Questions of morality, existence, and creation are raised and left up to the viewer to ponder and answer. Yes there are flying cars, and an attractive cast in a story about androids fighting humans, but Blade Runner gives us an actual story that makes us think instead of just 90 minutes of explosions.

•Acting. I said earlier that I had little to no emotional connection to the characters; in some movies this could be due to bad acting (actors phoning in the performance, being wooden etc.). In Blade Runner the actors are required to act in a way that is both elusive (Harrison Ford is distant at the beginning) and then at points deeply emotional. The actors all show an incredible range throughout the film, making their roles believable.