Blade Runner 4K UHD (1982)

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by worldchmps

I found it ok. Not great, not bad. I have the 3 disc 30th anniversary set. Feel like I'd upgrade if the 4K drops to around $20. Shocked the 4K doesn't gave all five versions. I'll get this but I don't need this today. Always liked the visuals and the basic plot but not the outfits and the main male and female replicants never felt believable and felt like actors were forcing themselves to make people root for them. And I wasn't crazy on Ford in this. So plot, visuals, good. Acting, meh.

[Geoff D]

Missing gif alert

[Croweyes1121]

Originally Posted by s2mikey

Agreed. It's got gobs of potential and atmosphere but it was hard to grab onto any characters and take the ride with them per se. If anything, Batty was possible the easiest to root for but he does some NOT nice things after spewing how important life was that it didn't make sense and turned me off to him. Deckard and Rachel.... yeah.... just missed the mark.

Interesting, this ties in well with my review (going up in the next day or two). Here's an early excerpt:

"Are we supposed to root for the humans who show no real love for either their world or their lives? Are the Replicants really the villains simply because they’re acting solely on radically underdeveloped instincts of self-preservation? Why do the very saturation, population, and density of this dystopian cityscape leave one with a sense of sterility where there should be depth, beauty and meaning?

"​Imagine my amazement when, years later and as a more learned film critic, I came to realize that all of my thematic “complaints” were actually at the very heart of what Blade Runner was trying to say all along. Buried beneath its twinkling metallic luster and dank, rain-drenched streets was a searing statement on our lost humanity – stifled nearly out long ago by our collective over-reliance on technology and its inevitable consequence of an ever-escalating detachment from one another. I find a film like Blade Runner, which seemed so cold and distant in the 1980’s, nothing if not eerily prescient as I reflect on it now in 2017."

[Laserdisk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Missing gif alert

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Archivy

Why do you believe that Blade Runner can't make any new fans going forward and that those new fans will only care about having the Final Cut?

Again, I just want to preserve original editions of films. WB apparently feels otherwise. And George Lucas (separately).

Hopefully by creating havoc somewhere down the line WB will release the other editions of Blade Runner in future formats so that new fans and already established fans will have access to more than just revisionist edits. That's all I'm saying. And the punchline is that WB could have done just that, perhaps even more cheaply in terms of production costs, if they would have included the 2012 BD discs rather than an incomplete set of DVDs.

Exactly. There are always new fans discovering these films. In the Close Encounters thread yesterday, somebody said they took their daughter to see it in the theatre for the first time and she enjoyed it. I'm 47 and still discover older films all the time that I just haven't seen yet for one reason or another.

[Pgcmoore]

Mine just shipped from Amazon, so they say

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Archivy

Why do you believe that Blade Runner can't make any new fans going forward and that those new fans will only care about having the Final Cut?

Again, I just want to preserve original editions of films. WB apparently feels otherwise. And George Lucas (separately).

Hopefully by creating havoc somewhere down the line WB will release the other editions of Blade Runner in future formats so that new fans and already established fans will have access to more than just revisionist edits. That's all I'm saying. And the punchline is that WB could have done just that, perhaps even more cheaply in terms of production costs, if they would have included the 2012 BD discs rather than an incomplete set of DVDs.

Well, look at it this way, it's Blade Runner. It's going to be re-released a couple more times before this format is done. Maybe next time they'll include the rest of the Blu-ray discs, maybe after that we'll get all the cuts in 4K. They need to save something to get people to double, triple and quadruple dip on future editions after all.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Missing gif alert

Damn it, Geoff! It's an outtake of Sean Young looking less than enthused.

[Geoff D]

As am I when I view your nada posts. Sort it out son!!

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by Croweyes1121

Interesting, this ties in well with my review (going up in the next day or two). Here's an early excerpt:

"Are we supposed to root for the humans who show no real love for either their world or their lives? Are the Replicants really the villains simply because they’re acting solely on radically underdeveloped instincts of self-preservation? Why do the very saturation, population, and density of this dystopian cityscape leave one with a sense of sterility where there should be depth, beauty and meaning?

"​Imagine my amazement when, years later and as a more learned film critic, I came to realize that all of my thematic “complaints” were actually at the very heart of what Blade Runner was trying to say all along. Buried beneath its twinkling metallic luster and dank, rain-drenched streets was a searing statement on our lost humanity – stifled nearly out long ago by our collective over-reliance on technology and its inevitable consequence of an ever-escalating detachment from one another. I find a film like Blade Runner, which seemed so cold and distant in the 1980’s, nothing if not eerily prescient as I reflect on it now in 2017."

Interesting - right back at ya!

yeah, maybe thats "it" then? Ill be watching it again when my copy arrives so lets see how I do. Im looking forward to seeing your review too.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

As am I when I view your nada posts. Sort it out son!!

[insert gif of Oprah crying]

[Lensman]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

As am I when I view your nada posts. Sort it out son!!

I could see it.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Archivy

Why do you believe that Blade Runner can't make any new fans going forward and that those new fans will only care about having the Final Cut?

Again, I just want to preserve original editions of films. WB apparently feels otherwise. And George Lucas (separately).

Hopefully by creating havoc somewhere down the line WB will release the other editions of Blade Runner in future formats so that new fans and already established fans will have access to more than just revisionist edits. That's all I'm saying. And the punchline is that WB could have done just that, perhaps even more cheaply in terms of production costs, if they would have included the 2012 BD discs rather than an incomplete set of DVDs.

You're turning this into way more dramatic an argument than I think it deserves. The old cuts are available in HD on blu-ray for cheap and have been for almost a decade. It's nowhere near a Lucas type situation where he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into putting them on non-anamorphic DVD. My main point was that the number of people who will discover Blade Runner for the first time on UHD disc format and then want to own the older cuts and find a $10 Best Buy digibook purchase to be a hardship is incredibly small. If you believe otherwise, well... agree to disagree.

[Khronikos]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

You're turning this into way more dramatic an argument than I think it deserves. The old cuts are available in HD on blu-ray for cheap and have been for almost a decade. It's nowhere near a Lucas type situation where he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into putting them on non-anamorphic DVD. My main point was that the number of people who will discover Blade Runner for the first time on UHD disc format and then want to own the older cuts and find a $10 Best Buy digibook purchase to be a hardship is incredibly small. If you believe otherwise, well... agree to disagree.

I agree that this release is shoddy as all hell, but it's definitely not like a Lucas situation.

I just know they made this release as unattractive as possible, and it sucks. No one wants friggin' DVDs of anything, especially on a UHD release. It's also more expensive. They could have easily give given us the old bluray, even one of them, and also remastered the bluray with the new 4K release or just given us a higher bitrate or something.

This release is lazy as hell.

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by Khronikos

No one wants friggin' DVDs of anything, especially on a UHD release.

Just wait for LOTR on UHD, with the same DVDs with extras repackaged. Once. Again!

[OutOfBoose]

With WB I won't be surprised one bit.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

Just wait for LOTR on UHD, with the same DVDs with extras repackaged. Once. Again!

Sad but very, very true.

[pbz06]

I bet the UHD of lotr will be the theatrical release

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by pbz06

I bet the UHD of lotr will be the theatrical release

And I'd be okay with that too. Basically with LOTR I'm in a win win win situation no matter if they release the theatricals, the long 'uns or any mooted revised cut on 4K.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Khronikos

I just know they made this release as unattractive as possible, and it sucks. No one wants friggin' DVDs of anything, especially on a UHD release.

I'm actually kind of happy to get the DVD version of Dangerous Days, as I think it will look better upscaled by my equipment than the BD version does.