Blade Runner 2008 Extended Edition

So, some background. I last watched Blade Runner maybe six months ago, probably longer. I've only seen the Final Cut, and everytime I've watched it I've had distractions, such as chatting with a friend about unrelated matters, or checking my phone, or whatever else. I've always loved the asthetic of the film, that at least I would never forget, but I always regret when I watch films and let myself get distracted, missing all the important story. So I've been wanting to revisit the film without any distractions since then. But then I'd decide not to, and get lost trying to choose which version and whatnot.
Then I found this edit, and I don't think it was a bad decision to watch this as my first TRUE viewing of Blade Runner.
As someone who is easily distracted, having the option to listen to the narration was wonderful. I'd always heard that the narration was cheaply tacked on at the end of production because the company thought people would be confused by the plot, though reading up more on it, I'm not sure if it's that, or just to give an overall more Noirish feeling. Regardless, I'd heard it was bad, until the description of the edit said that the editor preferred it. So I watched the film with it, and I definitely prefer it as well. There are gaps without any dialogue, which I can see the appeal of for some hardcore fans, but as a simpleton, I sort of lose focus with too many moments like that, so the narration helped to fill the void, and also generally expand upon Deckard's character and the world.
Now, the narration is the only big thing I can comment on. There isn't a whole lot of the film that I remember from previous viewings, so any changes made didn't stand out. So actually, I suppose that's something to comment on, all the sources were blended together so perfectly that I couldn't tell what strayed from the main source. For this, I gave the editing top scores, because I had no idea what was edited differently.
Nothing major is removed, the plot is intact, and I see no reason why this shouldn't be recommended to any first time viewer, or long time fan. For all I care, this IS Blade Runner.

Blade Runner has long been my all-time favorite film. Having said that, I could never quite settle on what version I preferred. Key things that always bothered me were the unicorn scene and the drive-away ending, both of which felt very out of place. Yet I wanted as much extended material as possible. No silly narrative.

Quite by chance though I ended up watching with the narrative, something I've never done all the way through. I've seen the movie 10 times or more, so I figured it might be interesting. Much as I remembered, the lines were notably uninspiring at times, but the information provided by the narrative fleshed out so much of what is already a great storyline. And Decker is no poet or public speaker, why wouldn't his descriptions be dry and awkward? I think without the narrative would still be my personal go to version because the periods of silence are so powerful, but by a narrow margin, and I would recommend that first time watchers watch it with narration.

Audio/visual: worked for me. The amazing visuals and sound track kept me riveted, with such clean edits that I never was distracted.

Narrative: perfect. Everything I wanted in the movie. Some of the extended scenes I didn't remember, and I wonder if I missed them in watching the other versions, or didn't see one of them (though I own the DVD). The pacing was spot on. This was never meant to be an action film; the long periods of storyline and character development only serves to make the few action scenes all the more gripping. It's dark and romantic and stirring and disturbing. And holy frack! The casting and writing in this film blows my mind - what an epic tap into the wellspring of storytelling!

Enjoyment: There are no words for it. This is my go to version once I can figure out how to burn a DVD that is 7GB in size (I watched it on my computer in fragments and still loved it!). This is it man, this is my cut of choice!!!

I hate the voice-overs from the Theatrical Cut but I decided to watch this edit with ADM’s preferred audio track. Other than the VOs I highly enjoyed this edit. Director’s Cut is still preferred version.

A/V Quality - 10
Editing - 10
Improvement - 9
Enjoyment - 8 (Director’s Cut 10, Theatrical 8)

Recommended drink: Johnny Walker Black

When Ridley Scott first released the extended edition of Blade Runner I was initially ecstatic. I'd watched it all the time when I was younger and loved the concept of a Bogart-style film noir that took place in the future (of course at that age I just called it a detective movie) and when I found out it was actually butchered by bad post production I had to jump on what the real story was.

For the most part this was wonderful, but there was a fatal flaw, on a personal level if not a technical one. I missed Ford's narration, one of the main sources of that old detective movie feel I remembered. ADigitalMan evidently missed it as well, and rather than stew in his disappointment he did something about it, thus providing what he advertized: a closer look at a retired Blade Runner thrown into his most ethically complicated case.

A/V Quality: 9
-Visual Editing: 10
A small note here: I didn't watch the high quality version of this and will for the foreseeable future watch all of these edits in the very standard 640p due to technical limitations.

Deleted scenes, particularly regarding the first Blade Runner shown in the movie, were very welcome and added to a character who was just written off in virtually every official cut. Everything was smoothly edited and virtually seamless.

-Audio Editing:9
For the most part the editing was smooth and fit into the narrative.
My only problem was that the deleted narration was markedly quieter than what was already in the theatrical edition. For one, this showed what was deleted and what wasn't, but I also found myself rewinding the video in order to better hear what was said. That said it was worth listening to.

Narrative: 10

Here's where this edit shone.
The deleted narration, reintroduced in this edit, brought more insight as to why Deckard's life hit bottom, why he was so miserable, and better illustrated his internal struggle between his job and his passion. There were some very good lines here that were taken out in lieu of statements of the obvious.

Also no longer does Deckard immediately know what the flake in the bathtub is. He actually investigates into the matter a little more. It's funny how just a couple of added scenes makes me regret not watching this edit first.

Enjoyment: 10

This is my go-to copy of one of my absolute favorite movies. It convinced me that Deckard's narration in the theatrical cut was in fact a crutch, despite what I personally liked. ADM turned this crutch into something better: a bittersweet narrative force that lets one into Deckard's head and adds a little more depth to an already fantastic character.

If you wanted the narration back in the special edition, I can assure you you'll get even more than you bargained for.

BR is my favourite film of all time. For years now, I’ve been trying to track down like so many others – different versions of this cult-hit. I’ve never decided whether I prefer the V/O or not, but I suspect I preferred the 92 directors cut as there was no happy ending and the unicorn scene made more sense for the ending.

With the arrival of the Final Cut – I thought we were going to see long lost deleted scenes put back in and a nice big correction and cleanup or certain things. Although I was still blown away watching the FC, I was left a bit dissapointed that Scott hadn’t put anything more in. It was just a clean up. Especially so, when I saw 45 mins of deleted and alternate scenes on the DVD’s.

Enter ADigitalMan with a cut for all tastes….well nearly anway. With the list of changes as above – this left me salivating. Downloaded and watched.

The nice thing here, is that he’s given you the option of V/O. Those who hate the dialogue can switch it off. Those who like can switch it on and there’s different version of the dialogue. I watched it with his ‘preferred’ dialogue, which adds much more Deckard narration, much more background into his character. I only noticed this go a bit strange in a couple places where the Vangelis score seems to repeat a couple bars. Sometimes Deckard seems to say something and repeat himself but in a different way….some of the narration doesn’t quite mesh – but I know this, I’m a fan. Someone watching this for the first time would never know. Plus you can watch it with the different narrations or not at all.

HOSPITAL SCENES!!!! YES!!!! The funny thing about these scenes, is that Holden makes Deckard to be a bit aloof, not altogether with it – the same thing can be said of an additional bar scene at Taffy Lewis’s.

Leon meeting Roy – much better than the previous re-used scene.

Leaving out the unicorn scene. To me, it makes no sense of the origami unicorn that Gaff leaves – I had no problem with it, but some other scenes point at Deckard being a rep here. He goes on about why a replicant would want photos and collect photos, while staring at his huge collection of photos. One of which comes to life, like Rachels. In a hospital scene, we see Gaff and Bryant watching Deckard on video as is they’re curious as to what he does. This scene makes it obvious how Gaff knows that Rachel is at Deckards apartment. Love the line ‘I spit on metaphysics Sir’. Fleshes out Gaff, changes his character.

We see Deckard wake after Rachel plays the piano…this had been left out previously.

Extended love scene – well, we get to see more skin – works for me!

Nice bit with Roy leaving the Tyrell Corporation, exclaiming ‘Mom?!’. There was line there that was in the Final Cut after Roy had killed Tyrell that would have been nice to leave in.

‘Are you sure you’re a man?’ Should have been in the Final Cut.

This cut, without using the Unicorn seems to me to say quite obviously that Dec is a rep. Let’s not forget the opening line from Rachel before credits “You know what I think? That we were made for each other.” It feels like a different film somewhat now. I don’t think it’s as dark as Scott’s Final Cut, but this feels like a more personal film in the world of Deckard. We hear his thoughts, he expresses his doubts and fears.

Technically, sound and picture are perfect. No harsh cuts, seemless.

5/5.