Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 Episode 1 Discussion

Graumann said:
Damn, that was a beautiful visual treat. It has prompted me to watch the original Blade Runner. Going to rewatch this after seeing that movie. Hopefully things will make more sense.

GD1551 said:


The original movie sucks and I think this short gives a decent idea as to what it was about. If the new movie is anything like this I'm on board though.

GD1551 said:


Style over substance, the movie is a visual treat and the atmosphere is great but the actual substance isn't there and it's extremely boring. What I mean by boring is there very little action and too much worthless dialogue. I feel like the world isn't used fully and that's why I don't like the movie.

This short for instance, despite being ~15 mins somehow has better pacing and balance than the original movie does which is crazy. I fully understood what happened, I got some nice action scenes and it setup the new movie well. It hit every point it needed to, to get me excited for the new movie.

pcf2 said:



I can see how somone could feel that the original is 'boring' due to it being slow, but it not having enough action isnt a legitimate complaint its not supposed to be an action packed sci-fi film its more of a slow paced detective drama with amazing world building.

I dont know what you mean by the world isnt used fully the world building is probably its biggest strength as it spends so much time establishing the premise and making it believeable,however a lot is left to the viewers imagination which is how it should be done in my opinon. ( its more character driven which may not be your preferred style,but eh)

why do you describe the dialogue as being useless ? isnt the 'tears in the rain' monologue one of the best somewhat on the spot dialogues in sci-fi movie history?

finally, i cant agree with the pacing this short anime had so many random inconsistent time skips for me. philp k dick (blade runner) sets the blueprint for 90% of these cyberpunk shows/movies when it comes to atmosphere and world building.

GD1551 said:


I don't disagree that it's not supposed to be an action film, but it isn't exactly filled with great dialogue or characters either. For instance, I watched a TV series called Stranger from netflix, that is completely character and dialogue driven and I was sucked in. Bladerunner is just boring in that regard (for me) and there's too much of it. The scene in when he's in the apartment with rachel feels like it's an hour long of them babbling about nonsense, why not trim that scene? It was actually the biggest hurdle for me to get over when trying to finish the movie.

I also didn't say the pacing in this anime was that great, I just said it was better than the bladerunner movie, in fact, most diehard fans of the movie I know agree that the movie has bad pacing or at least can understand why someone would say that. As for the world building, the anime short showed me a couple of things that I did not know of about the world in 15 mins

- Replicants replaced humans on battlefields but were supplied by the same company, we already knew they were used on the battlefield (batty or w/e his name was a combat model) but we never knew that it was them essentially killing themselves and being made by the same company.

- Ground based vehicles still exist, implying that propulsion technology isn't as advanced as we might have thought it.

- After the events of the movie humans decided to go on a full on killing spree of all replicants and used the database itself to do so. Not to mention they destroyed the database as well.

GD1551 said:


Style over substance, the movie is a visual treat and the atmosphere is great but the actual substance isn't there and it's extremely boring. What I mean by boring is there very little action and too much worthless dialogue. I feel like the world isn't used fully and that's why I don't like the movie.

-Moonchild- said:


If you think the original blade runner is style over substance then you seriously let the entire thing go over your head. It's almost the exact opposite of that. Blade runner is a cyber punk and sci classic that tackles multiple complex themes and ideas in an incredibly intelligent and subtle fashion. It is one of the most thought provoking movies ever made, the visuals and style only are used as a way of painting the landscape and fueling the narrative and exploring the themes.

Ghost in the shell heavily took from it. As did more or less every cyber punk and psychological sci fi film and anime ever made. It's slow paced but that's the point.

Complaining about a lack of action is really simple minded. Evey single second of that movie serves a purpose.

GD1551 said:


Since you didn't grasp the underlying reason for my lack of action complaint I'll fill you in. There's too much talking and drawn out scenes, the movie isn't broken up with enough dramatic or action scenes and many of the conversations at times are ridiculous in length and essentially trying to slap you over the head with the movie's themes. This is extremely weird because there's a lot of symbolism and visual story telling in the movie so this is extremely unnecessary. Additionally there are opportunities for world building that are missed when you don't use action or dramatic scenes.

Since you used GITS let me use GITS as well, the original movie had key set pieces that helped with the overall pacing of the movie, BR lacks this greatly. In fact GITS movie's greatest fault is the same I have with BR, they try to slap you over the head with the themes in extremely long conversations (batou on the boat for example). A better comparison for BR is actually GITS 2 Innocence, that's much better representation of how I feel about BR in general. Also a lot of the action scenes in GITS are used to give us an idea of how police/military procedure in the future works as well as how the current state of their technology in comparison to how the rest of the world is and the general state of society.

If you think I'm "too simple minded" to understand it, you are mistaken, this isn't a question of understanding, I simply do not want to be lectured for hours.

-Moonchild- said:


It's not a drama or action film though. The entire point of blade runner is to leave thought provoking open ended questions on the themes explored. The dialogue and action is meant to inspire intrigue. Moreover it definitely doesn't bash you over the head as most of the ideas presented are done through subtle and realistic conversations and moments. Action and dramatic scenes are literally the opposite of world building. They're plot building not world building. The film doesn't pander or lecture almost ever.

Blade runner is set up as a cyber punk detective noire so yeah, complaints that there's no action and too much talking IS simple minded and misses the point. The films purpose is to make you think. It's slow moving for that reason. You might as well complaining 2001 was bad because it had no action lol

GD1551 said:


Ok, but like I stated the pacing is terrible because there aren't many action or dramatic scenes to break up the overly long conversations. It doesn't matter if it's not a drama or action film, I've watched plenty and read plenty of material that isn't, the problem is that the pacing itself is horrendous and a lot of the dialogue isn't great either or way too long. The apartment scene for instance, is way way way too long for what it delivers.

What's the issue here? It's ultimately BORING with a lot the length of many of the conversations being extremely unnecessary (that apartment scene is ridiculous) especially given how good the visual story telling is in the movie.

Removing the pretentious aspect most people seem to have with this movie

The characters aren't great, the pacing isn't great, the story isn't great either. Also you are wrong, action scenes do provide a lot of world building, no clue what you are talking about. I hate when people say stuff like this because it's extremely simple minded, you come with a preconceived notion of what world building is and somehow believe that action scenes cannot provide it. Even in meh movies like judge dredd, you get a feel for the world by the action scenes alone. You can tell crime is out of control by the way judges enforce the law without any stats or long talks stating the fact.

GD1551 said:


Ok, but like I stated the pacing is terrible because there aren't many action or dramatic scenes to break up the overly long conversations. It doesn't matter if it's not a drama or action film, I've watched plenty and read plenty of material that isn't, the problem is that the pacing itself is horrendous and a lot of the dialogue isn't great either or way too long. The apartment scene for instance, is way way way too long for what it delivers.

What's the issue here? It's ultimately BORING with a lot the length of many of the conversations being extremely unnecessary (that apartment scene is ridiculous) especially given how good the visual story telling is in the movie.

Removing the pretentious aspect most people seem to have with this movie

The characters aren't great, the pacing isn't great, the story isn't great either. Also you are wrong, action scenes do provide a lot of world building, no clue what you are talking about. I hate when people say stuff like this because it's extremely simple minded, you come with a preconceived notion of what world building is and somehow believe that action scenes cannot provide it. Even in meh movies like judge dredd, you get a feel for the world by the action scenes alone. You can tell crime is out of control by the way judges enforce the law without any stats or long talks stating the fact.

GD1551 said:
Just saw movie and it was a master piece, better than the crappy original.