Homework (due next class):
46 Comments
Gordon Hu
11/1/2018 11:31:25 pm
This was an interesting movie, to say the least. It was probably the first film noire movie I've watched, so perhaps my newness to the genre was off-putting. Understandably, the film was from the early 1980s so I can't seriously criticize the soundtrack, although it did feel a bit weird at times.
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Gordon Hu
11/1/2018 11:33:28 pm
I watched the first Blade Runner fyi
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Stacy Fernandes
11/2/2018 11:31:14 pm
Film: Blade Runner
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Eric Hernandez
11/4/2018 10:03:59 am
Funny that you mentioned the zoom-in scene, I remember watching the movie with a large group of people previously and noticed many people calling out the fakeness of this technology, of all things. I like how you mention Westworld, I've never thought about this connection but it is interesting to think about how there are different ways of portraying 'artificial humans' or 'robots', but self-awareness is always a common theme and issue.
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Turese Anderson
11/4/2018 11:43:24 pm
I made the Detroit: Become Human connection too! After watching, I'm pretty sure this was a huge influence to that game, what with the "robots go deviant and have emotions that they think are real". Detroit went to extra lengths to refine the robot thing, like change how they worked to answer for that huge plot hole of "why wouldn't they make the robots different enough from humans so you'd be able to differentiate them easier than doing an are-you-a-robot interview with a risk of false positives?"
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Abigail Magat
11/5/2018 02:41:24 pm
I also found it super hilarious seeing the blurry photo. I thought to myself like wow I should stop complaining about my phone quality because if they think that’s advanced technology then ours is way more. It’s intersting to see how the future is predicted in movies like this compared to how it really is now. It’s juat fascinating. Also, I did realize that most of the movie was in the dark to I guess emphasize the grimness of it all and give it a futuristic feel, but the small glimpses of light in some scenes made the scene more intense or I feel emphasized the importance of the scenes.
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Eric Hernandez
11/4/2018 09:58:29 am
I have seen both Blade Runners, and while Blade Runner 2049 takes Blade Runner's visuals to the next level, I really enjoy and prefer the story of the original Blade Runner. For a film that came out in 1982, I am amazed by the production design and how well they constructed a cyberpunk world. Blade Runner reflects one of the prominent themes and questions of early science fiction, what happens if you don't know what the enemy looks like? Much like "The Thing", Blade Runner explores the idea of fighting an unfamiliar enemy whose advantage is disguise, which really contributes to the excitement of the film as the audience questions who is human vs. who is replicant. Laslty, Blade Runner just feels so original at this point in cinema, with an interesting and unique storyline that could be analyzed infinitely.
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Stacy Fernandes
11/4/2018 09:01:03 pm
I haven't seen the new blade runner, but I am excited for it. I'd expect the scenery to be more believable than the original blade runner. I'm glad you pointed out that the film uses the idea of fighting an enemy in disguise. It makes me think that despite the looks of the replicants, they're still robots. Though, it makes me wonder how they are able to comprehend their emotions. Like, are they just simulating emotions to blend in? Or is there glitch or mutation occurring in their code? Either way, the world of blade runner is very interesting and the story is amazing because I keep asking questions to know more about it.
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Turese Anderson
11/4/2018 11:37:29 pm
I chose to watch Blade Runner this week because it was the only option. I think. The wording about Monty Python made it seem like it was more of a side thing.
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Mariam Zagub
11/6/2018 03:13:19 pm
I agree with you about the film. It WAS boring, and it was tropey. I don't know if I can say it was even that original for that time period because it was that boring to me. I really can't appreciate this film especially because of the rape scene that everyone seems to gloss over as a romantic scene of passion between a human and a robot. It was gross and boring. The great videography and questions of humanity that it brings up do give the film some points, but there are so many other films similar to Blade Runner that aren't this boring and problematic.
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Gordon Hu
11/6/2018 06:20:02 pm
I thought the sexual assault scene was very uncomfortable too. I actually looked up the scene to see what critics had to say about it, and there was a surprisingly large majority that were okay with it. They said that she “wanted it” but didn’t know how to express her emotions as she was a replicant; they argued that Deckard was trained in observing people’s emotions and desires and thus he knew that she wanted. I call bullshit. At least some of the fight scenes were cool. I still don’t get why the female replicant fighting Deckard stopped ripping apart his nose and started doing useless backflips all of the place. Whatever.
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Abigail Magat
11/5/2018 02:37:53 pm
I have never seen Blade Runner but I heard good things about. I was a little surprised to know that it was produced in the 80s because it was produced fairly well for its time. It gave me a Back To The Future type of feel, which was enjoyable. The storyline was similar to other sci-fi movies but for some reason it was much more interesting and not as boring as the sci-fi movies we have now. I think it was the characters who were quite interesting and they weren’t too dramatic. Besides the storyline, I really liked the cinematography of the film for its time and how they made it really look modern. I think I enjoyed looking at the movie rather than actually watching it. Overall, I enjoyed the film despite the fact that these aren’t the type of films I enjoy watching.
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Cassiel Chadwick
11/5/2018 10:44:15 pm
So, first off: Blade Runner 2049 is an absolutely stunning audiovisual experience. From beginning to end, I was -in- the world, and I just wanted more of it. Gorgeous shot after gorgeous shot.
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Luc Pogue
11/5/2018 11:34:08 pm
I think your point about the story being 'big' is actually a really good one, though I think perhaps that's just a product of our times. Over the past ten years in particular, these 'tentpole' blockbusters have felt the need to grow larger in scale, with ever-growing consequences (usually saving the world from some all-powerful villain). This, unfortunately, often means that subtlety is sacrificed-- that being said, 2049 isn't an end-of-the-world type of movie. The characters are fighting pretty personal battles, though they would certainly have wide-ranging ramifications, so I think the movie straddles the line (though I think this pushes it away from noir a bit, as you point out).
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Luc Pogue
11/5/2018 11:29:32 pm
I've seen both Blade Runners a few times, and I think I'm in the very small minority that actually likes 2049 better than the original. I know I'll get some slack for this, but 2049 is one of my favorite sci-fi films ever. The team that made this movie was enough to make me nerd out-- Dennis Villeneuve directing (his movie Arrival is also one of my faves), Roger Deakins with the incredible cinematography, Gosling and Ford, two of my favorite actors! I really don't think I've seen a movie this gorgeous since 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the visual effects were absolutely stunning. I could name a million scenes that were jaw-dropping, from the fight between Gosling and Ford in the casino to the hologram/prostitute merger to the final fight in the ocean-- the whole movie has to be seen to be believed. Perhaps the story is just barely below that of the original (that first one is hard to beat, and the second strays a bit from the detective/noir feel), but it is still solid, with several interesting and surprising twists thrown in. Overall this is a great movie and I'm excited to talk about it in class!
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Ryan Askew
11/6/2018 01:09:18 pm
I must be in the minority with you then, because I liked this movie more than the original too. The first is unparalleled in many ways, but this one is unique in its own right for how it built upon the original story in a reasonable, meaningful way while also expanding the futuristic cyberpunk/dystopian world with imaginative tech and set design. The fight scenes were brutal too, which was cool. Overall, this movie felt different, but I actually liked that it strayed from the noir elements of the first and went with a brighter color scheme for this one. It matched the tone of the ending, as was true for the original.
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Stephanie Machuca
11/5/2018 11:43:19 pm
The movie I chose to watch was the OG Blade Runner.
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Sean Tseng
11/6/2018 02:58:30 am
Agreed that Deckard needs to chill it and not slam doors or grab people or force words into his romantic interest's mouth. I'd love to know what Rachael was going to say, to get into her psyche some more, but alas, we'll never know because for some reason, the slow-burn potential romance became a rushed, aggressive, confusing, and highly concerning scene. That definitely did not contribute to my appreciation of the movie in any possible way. What I did appreciate, also in agreement to your favorite line, is the origami figure detail and how a seemingly small character detail is brought back into importance at the end. Unfortunately, Rachael seems to have the opposite trajectory as Origami Man, as she seems unique and almost pivotal in the beginning, yet we lose track of her as soon as the "will they/won't they" is answered, and then she's picked up like a loose end by the film's closing.
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Judith Kim
11/6/2018 04:50:42 pm
I agree with this 100%. I loved seeing the origami piece at the end, because that was something I kept noticing throughout the film when we saw "Origami Man" haha
Sean Tseng
11/6/2018 02:47:56 am
I watched Blade Runner, as I'd never seen it before. To be honest, I think the hype set it up to be more than it turned out to be. I understand that its quality at the time it was released must have been unprecedented and original, especially in its technical and worldbuilding aspects. Some details in the film also hinted at interesting facets in the setting for potential exploration. However, it was ultimately underwhelming in plot and character development. For its acclaim, I perhaps expected too complex a plot or too much exploration of, really, any character. Maybe I'm also imposing too modern a lens on the movie. Still, it left much to be desired. Deckard was supposed to be the best Blade Runner they had yet did not seem to have much going for him except luck and the whim of his opponents. He seemed very standard, not a bad character but not memorable either. If asked to profile his character, I would not be able to say very much about just what personality he had. Part of his flatness to me might also be because he had hardly any backstory to speak of, at least within the confines of this film, which is all I can judge. The elements of the story also felt a bit slapdash. It was mildly interesting but very, very slow, with prolonged silences that I felt could have been spent on more efficient storytelling, as the mood was set after the first few atmospheric scenes already. Of course, as others have mentioned, there is also that very questionable scene between Deckard and Rachael that honestly was frustrating and a bit ridiculous to watch, personally. To me, few characters other than Roy felt dimensional and fleshed out in their motivations, personality, and trajectory throughout the movie. I enjoyed Roy's character very much, and I liked the turning of the tables at the end when the human is the one who needs to learn empathy. Still, there was very little investment on my side in any part of the film, and Rachael's relevancy falling out of the plot after they make love is one of many components of the movie that just leave me feeling rather unsatisfied.
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11/6/2018 10:50:30 am
I do agree with you on character development. Besides a few, most of the characters seem to lack memorable potentional. We did not know much about their backstories and some sceens felt ridiculous. It's kind of irronic that Roy, a Replicant, happen to show empathy by the end of the film then Deckard, a human protagonist.
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Javier Arias-Romero
11/6/2018 03:26:52 pm
I think you raise an interesting point. Although I loved the movie for its storytelling and theme, character development is not a pillar of this movie’s success in my opinion. Even with Harrison Ford. I feel like the action heroes of that time were always pretty flat since they “got things done” without saying much and that’s pretty much it. Also, I agree that the performance we saw did not match his title of “best blade runner.”
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11/6/2018 10:43:29 am
The film I had watch is Blade Runner.
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Russell Lee
11/6/2018 05:33:49 pm
Like Back to the Future, Blade Runner's perspective on our age, what they saw as the future, is remarkable. For many of our parents' lives, what we are living in today was their future, something so distant. It's amazing how time and film work and how we can take any form of film and relate it to historical context.
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Ryan Askew
11/6/2018 12:56:32 pm
I watched Blade Runner 2049. Having seen the original several times, and loving it more each time, I approached this movie with cautious optimism and several expectations. Fortunately, to my great relief, all of them were met and exceeded. This sequel seemed to match the tone and pace of the first Blade Runner while also managing to somehow be even more visually/aurally spectacular and include more action. The cyberpunk set design was masterfully detailed in each scene, and I appreciated how it also seemed somewhat more dystopian than the original movie at times too. The amount of what was presumably smog in the city, for example, is a good indicator of the decades that have passed since the original story, adding a great deal of verisimilitude to the overpopulated, heavily industrialized metropolis of futuristic Los Angeles.
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Oreste Turchetti
11/6/2018 05:12:51 pm
Yeah I think the larger budget + modern cgi really helped the locations and sets become next-level stuff. The ruined city at the end with the yellow smog and the bees was super interesting looking and had such a great sense of ancient ruins with a lot of scale. As much as I love the original, I have to say 2049 definitely more gripping.
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Mariam Zagub
11/6/2018 03:07:44 pm
The film I chose to watch was Blade Runner because it's supposed to be a classic and I'd rather watch it before I watch Blade Runner 2049. However, after watching Blade Runner I'd now say I don't think I'll be watching Blade Runner 2049. The film may have been well made and interesting to watch at various times, but it wasn't my sort of thing. Yes the film's videography was beautiful and created feelings of claustrophobia and sometimes anxiety that the audience needed to feel to understand the setting of the film, but it was boring. The film was hyper masculine and problematic at many times, and it simply fueled another same old white male (and again, hyper-masculine) narrative that has never been interesting to watch. I imagine 2049 is the same, if not worse as (I've seen from the trailer) it seems to have women of color characters used for objectification purposes. I don't event think this film had women of color characters. Rachael, the only main women character, was raped in the film, and Zhora was shot dead while dressed in clothing for the male gaze, It's so tiring to watch films that don't have women of color characters that are used. I personally don't think I will ever like this movie, and this was honestly one of the biggest wastes of time for me.
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Nick Michael
11/24/2018 04:41:22 pm
Dang! That's a pretty scathing review. Overall, I would disagree, because I generally liked the movie. I thought it was beautifully shot and scored, and I also found the themes interesting. However, I do see where you're coming. The plot is definitely nothing to shout about. It is very flat, and there was one scene that I found outright disturbing (when Deckard forces himself onto Rachael. Rapey vibe.)
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Javier Arias-Romero
11/6/2018 03:22:26 pm
Film: Blade Runner
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Jesse Ou
11/6/2018 04:22:58 pm
I was also fascinated how influential and creative this movie was. The setting was not only unique but also fascinating. Everything was done so well.
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Jesse Ou
11/6/2018 04:21:49 pm
This movie was very interesting. It was great seeing all the precedent this movie set for the genre. Especially for such an old movie, they somehow created a very convincing futuristic setting that I would imagine was one of a kind at the time. It was very impressive seeing them pull this off. The story was also unique and left me constantly wanting to know more. However, some things I didn't like was the main character. I'm not sure how common his type was back in the day, but as a viewer from 2018, his character was not only something I've seen before, but also extremely common. Other than that though, the movie was great, and I enjoyed it.
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Judith Kim
11/6/2018 04:44:58 pm
I watched the first Blade Runner.
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Michelle Nguyen
11/6/2018 05:40:35 pm
Hi Judith,
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riley robinson
11/6/2018 06:04:41 pm
I agree with you about your comment on the lack of a deeper meaning. In my viewing I guess I failed to notice that there wasn't much apparent allegory or anything of the like. But I think this movie was entertaining, and well-executed, and it at least gets the viewer thinking about some very unique and trippy ideas. Also, I agree the set design was great. If we take into account the time in which the movie was made, though both of these areas may lack by modern standards, it is a well-executed 1980s sci-fi movie.
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Jonathan Truong
11/20/2018 07:18:25 pm
Hey Judith,
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Oreste Turchetti
11/6/2018 05:03:50 pm
I watched Blade Runner 2049 for this response because I had already seen the first film.
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Ma. Rebeca Escamilla
11/6/2018 05:04:55 pm
Blade Runner 2049
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Monse Lopez
11/24/2018 05:48:16 pm
Hi Rebeca,
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Jonathan Truong
11/6/2018 05:24:56 pm
I watched the first Blade Runner.
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Russell Lee
11/6/2018 05:29:44 pm
I prefer Blade Runner 2049 over the first one. Ryan Gosling as a lead seemed much more relatable than Harrison Ford. In terms of the plot, Blade Runner 2049 built off the story of the first and it was a lot more entertaining seeing the connection between the movies in the second rather than having everything be built up in the first.
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Michelle Nguyen
11/6/2018 05:37:25 pm
After watching Blade Runner, I can greatly appreciate why it's such a classic movie. The cinematography, color palette, and plot remind me of a number of movies and video games that were inspired by the movie. In particular, the android plot reminds me of one of my favorite video games, Mass Effect, which is also a futuristic take on the themes of humanity and androids/robots. I think that the movie set up the theme well to make it about a androids seeking humanity rather than the pitfall that other stories make where androids are a thinly-veiled allegory for racism.
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riley robinson
11/6/2018 05:59:06 pm
This week I watched blade runner. I am a fan of science fiction, but I hadn't seen this one before. Though I have seen some other Science fiction from the 1980s, and a lot of other movies with Harrison Ford. Overall, I found the movie was an excellent example of what science fiction should be. I think this was because of the intriguing way that the story gets us to think about what it means to be human. Of particular interest was the test administered to determine whether subjects were replicants or not. The opening scene, involving this plot device, made me immediately interested in what the movie had in store. Not only was the plot element of robots vs humanity interesting, but the movie also had a lot of good action and I would argue suspense. Deckard is a character that is easy to identify with as a fan of science fiction, and along his journey, this transfixion kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt like I was in a state of "flow" watching the movie; that is, I forgot I was watching a movie because I was so entertained. Overall, I definitely think I'll watch this movie again, because I feel like there is more to appreciate that I missed on this first viewing.
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Nick Michael
11/24/2018 04:37:27 pm
I watched the original Blade Runner. Going into the movie, I knew that it was polarizing, and I can definitely see why. It looks incredible (the intro shots are gorgeous), and the score was great as well. The themes of what it is to be human and humanity vs. AI are powerful throughout the film. However, when it comes down to the plot itself, the movie is very simple. Deckard's mission is to eliminate all of the replicants, and he accomplishes it without much opposition. So in general, I liked the movie (mostly for its visuals), but I would not consider it a classic.
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Atlas
12/6/2018 04:41:34 am
I disagree; I would consider this movie a classic. I feel that this movie set the bar for future sci fi movies, especially that it was made in the 80's. The movie created cliches that only became cliches because of this movie. Furthermore, the movie, like every great classic, had loads of hidden and deep metaphors– anything ranging from the origami unicorn, to the dove that flys away.
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Monse Lopez
11/24/2018 05:43:29 pm
Film: Blade Runner 2049
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Atlas Yuen
12/6/2018 04:39:07 am
I just watched Blade Runner for the first time, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. I generally dislike older movies (I’m not sure why, even some of the “really good” older movies that people recommend to me I usually dislike for some reason). I thought the plot was pretty good, but what really struck me was what people in the 1980s thought would be the future in 2019. Interestingly, the use of newspapers were used, even with light up umbrellas and flying cars and sentient AI. The unrealistic zoom and enhance was also something I took note of; the sound effect was like a projector, yet the picture was zoomed in on incredibly with perfect resolution. Overall, it just seemed like the director couldn’t decide whether to make the movie truly exceedingly futuristic or not. In one scene, I remember there being people herding ostriches through the alleys, but this was right after Deckard asked a random food vendor to tell if flesh was actually part of a fish. Kind of random, but like, is this movie hella futuristic or nah? However, generally, besides the inconsistencies, I can see how this movie became a classic, and set the precedent for how cliches are now known as cliches.
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