Blade Runner

Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: June 25, 1982

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

84	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Rita Kempley

Grand enough in scale to carry its many Biblical and mythological references, Blade Runner never feels heavy or pretentious -- only more and more engrossing with each viewing. It helps, too, that it works as pure entertainment. Read full review

100

Robert Osborne

Blade Runner is a cold, bold, bizarre and mesmerizing futuristic detective thriller that unites the British-born director of Alien with new box-office dynamo Harrison Ford for results that are as impressive as any film that's exploded through a projector so far this year. Read full review

100

Jonathan Rosenbaum

The grafting of 40s hard-boiled detective story with SF thriller creates some dysfunctional overlaps, and the movie loses some force whenever violence takes over, yet this remains a truly extraordinary, densely imagined version of both the future and the present, with a look and taste all its own. Read full review

100

Johanna Steinmetz

Most important, several elements -- the film's tough, new ending; a sly, fleeting dissolve of a unicorn, not in the original; and a brilliant, trompe d'oeil flicker of life in a shot of a still photograph -- bring Deckard's existential dilemma into focus. [11 Sept 1992]

100

Michael Wilmington

May be the best "new" American movie released this year. Read full review

100

Desson Thomson

This movie is great in any version...I don't miss what has been cut from the new version. The overall effect is so beautifully wrought, a few details aren't going to bring things crashing down. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

This is perhaps the only science-fiction film that can be called transcendental. Read full review

Bob Thomas

Ridley Scott (“Alien”) has produced a new vision that is forbidding. [2 July 1982]

James Berardinelli

Blade Runner is a rare science fiction movie so full of material that pages can be written about it without scratching the surface. A review like this can provide little more than an overview. A detailed exploration of the movie, its style, and its mysteries requires dedication that only someone immersed in Blade Runner lore can provide. Currently, the film is available in the United States only in the director's cut. Warner Brothers, however, has promised an exhaustive box set next year with multiple versions. It will be interesting to see whether those editions offer new insights or expand upon the film's already rich tapestry. Read full review

Susan Wloszczyna

What remains is a great Vangelis score, astonishing production design, Hauer's career role -- and a movie that deserves its cult reputation despite an unloving heart. [11 Sept 1992]

Edward Guthmann

Today, Blade Runner works better than ever: Scott's version not only has more dramatic integrity, but its visual aesthetic and futuristic vision are more in sync with today's movie-goers. [11 Sept 1992]

Roger Ebert

It looks fabulous, it uses special effects to create a new world of its own, but it is thin in its human story. Read full review

Terry Kelleher

There may be little point in deploring Blade Runner's lack of entertainment value. The production values, a reported $30 million worth, are nearly the whole show. They are impressive, to be sure. [26 June 1982, p.D6]

Janet Maslin

THE view of the future offered by Ridley Scott's muddled yet mesmerizing Blade Runner is as intricately detailed as anything a science-fiction film has yet envisioned. Read full review

David Sterritt

As before, the movie is more impressive for its finely detailed vision of Los Angeles as a futuristic slum than for its story, acting, or message. It's all downhill after the first few eye-dazzling minutes. [2 Oct 1992]