Review: Blade Runner

Quintessential film noir set in a rain-streaked dystopian city of the near future. Often copied, but rarely rivalled - while on the surface it's a story about a detective hunting down rogue robots, at its heart, it's a mediation on what it means to be human and the shortness of our individual existence.

It's not without its weaknesses. It's not an immediately accessible film, particularly in the newer non-voiceover cuts. That hardly matters to me as I've seen it so many times that I'm familiar with the meaning of the various allusions to the possible true nature of one of the principal characters and other iconography.

The plot is also not particularly strong either. But the visuals, oh my goodness. From the dirty, neon- crowded street level scenes to the ones soaring above it all - they were awe inspiring when I first saw the film in the late 80s, and they still feel remarkably current - especially in their use of light. That's an incredible achievement considering the film is more than 30 years old.

Verdict: Mediative and visually-striking.