Vangelis' "Blade Runner"

Same here. Prometheus should have never been made - I'd rather watch Aliens Vs Predator 2 then watch Prometheus again. And I think at least 50 percent of the magic of Blade Runner is Vangelis' score, which I don't believe he or anyone else can re-produce.

I agree with Guitar Noir in that, if there's to be a sequel, I hope it's about other characters within that world, rather than Deckard and Rachel's story... I don't want to know where they've gone or how they're getting on; it's best left to the imagination. Is Deckard a replicant? Best left a mystery, which deepens the film.

So much that's special about Blade Runner is its retro-futurism and film noir character (reflected in Vangelis's score as well) - the seeming perpetual night, the urban seediness, the constant rainfall, not to mention the tropes of the world-weary cop and the femme fatale... If the textures and mood can be re-created, and we can follow completely new characters in this same place - wow, that would be so cool. Especially if they can get the music right. If the narrative can somehow intersect with the original in some way that's surprising without feeling contrived, that's even better. Perhaps a totally different Philip K. Dick short story can be set in the Blade Runner universe. I'm reminded of how Robert Altman took a dozen different Raymond Carver short stories and weaved them into his great film Short Cuts.

If it's done right, it could be great. But so rarely are things done right. Has there ever been a case where a director revisited one of his classic works and it was anything other than mediocre? Coppola's Godfather III should never have been made; ditto Scott's Alien prequel Prometheus. Lucas's Star Wars prequels were utterly awful.

Yes, it's a theme mined in cyberpunk and postmodern scifi as well (of which Blade Runner was a pioneer, along with precursors like Chris Marker's La jetee and Godard's Alphaville). In post-Blade Runner films like Dark City (and the director's follow-up, the under-rated I Robot), The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, and Vanilla Sky (as well as the remake of Marker's film, 12 Monkeys), characters are unsure of their own identity and what's real.

When I first heard that there was to be a re-make of Total Recall, I was desperately hoping that it would be set in the Blade Runner world (which after all made frequent mention of 'off-world colonies'). Alas they blew it...

I agree. I quite like the film, but it misses masterpiece status. The director followed Dark City with the film I Robot, which I strongly disliked at first but have come to like over the years the more I thought about it.

For example, one reason I didn't like it at first (and it got a lot of criticism over this) was the product placement in the film: Converse shoes, Audi car, etc. But then I began to realize: all these products are destroyed in the film: the shoes become covered in blood and are ruined; the car gets rubbished; Will Smith's character grabs the FedEx robot by the face and pushes him away, etc. It goes to the heart of the film: it's the corporation and its slimy CEO that's unleashed the robots, etc etc. The director was clearly riffing on Blade Runner: a cop is the hero, there's a CEO who sits at the top of his empire perched over the city; Deckard may or may not be human, while Will Smith is half-robot...

I thought it's pretty well accepted that (at least, according to Ridley Scott) Deckard, too, is a replicant (he just doesn't know it). But I agree, the Roy character is, for me, the central and most memorable character in the film. In fact, Rutger Hauer's Roy is probably my favorite character from any movie--and the "Tears in the Rain" scene the most powerful scene I've ever been witness to. 

I say, Let it lie. There's no need for prequels, sequels, or remakes. Heck, there are enough "alternate versions" to keep one busy for the rest of our lives.