Quite a few points I'd like to comment on:
Athough "Bladerunner" is a widely acknowledged classic now,it was anything but on its release. After Harrisons appearence in "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" the last thing most people though BR would be was a slow moving futuristic detective noir , and it got a huge amount of stick for that.
If the internet had been around then Ridley would got the same kind of respounce that he provoked with "Prometheus". I had one friend who really hated it and thought Philip K .Dick should disown it because of how unlike the novel it was , and another who was bored to death by the plodding nature of the plot and had expected it to be another like "Star Wars".
There were a just few of us who thought it was perhaps the most brilliant sci fi movie we'd ever seen. It got absolutely mauled by the British press reviews and Ridley got several shades of ***t kicked out of him for producing what was pretty much percieved as a failure. It certainly didn't do well at the box office but a bunch of us went to see it when ever it got rereleased on the arts circuit and it was the source of a lot of discussions over a pint (or two).
It certainly didn't rent that well when videos were made available.Infact one of my mates actually bought the stores only copy, because to quote the owner "You're the only guy that ever watches it."
So I'm kind of amused when HF starts talking about why he wanted to do another one. Harrsions "strong" dislike of his character, his direction by Ridley and the way the film was made and written in general was widely reported and there were some toe curling interviews where it was plainly obvious that he and Ridley were never ever going to make another film again because of the sheer antagonisim Ford held for Scott. He ****ing hated that movie and the director. He's comeback to it because its work that he would not have got otherwise and presumably he got a shedload of money..
And I guess the fact that it looks more like a sci fi actioner in the trailers is very intentional, but I don't think there is that much in there really, not incomparisson to alot of previews, I mean there is no mighty army of replicants going ape**** , or swarms of spinners dive bombing them, it all seems pretty much to focus on one or two people at a time. All Vileneuve can do actioners, just go watch "Sicario" if you don't believe me. It does look like Vileneuve has gone with that empty look that was in the original novel though, as if a disaster of off world migration has depopulated cities.
PS. The future doesn't change as much as you think. I'm in my fifties now, and as much as some things change, its not changed at the pace everybody thought it would. Infact, incomparisson to what alot of what sci fi predicted for us ,its hardly altered at all.
It's like he drove up, walked onto set and they started filming. I guess it's a petty complaint, but it does clash with the whole "future" aspect of it being a period piece.
