Blade Runner: Tears in the Rain

well this was a doozy of an edit.

I'm kind of like WORN OUT by Blade Runner tweaks and thsi intrigued me from the off...High Contrast B&W? Differnt story angle...HMMMM aint gonna work.....BUT IT DOES.

Off the bat, an incredibly bold reordering of material, especially at the beginning. The fact I have seen the original 30, 40, 50 times...I thought would be a hinderance but genius stroke 1...B&W. That pulled me into a different world. I was able to but into the structure immediatelt.

The audio work was by and large very good. There was on part at the beginning where there appeared to be an audio glitch in a shot where pris and Sebastian are about to go into the building but beyond that all great. It was interesting that by pulling out a lot of the love story element one got the feeling that Decker was just a bored pissed off cop (or was that Harrison Ford being pissed off with Ridley Scott)...nver mind...it worked.

For my taste, I love the B&W but wondered if it could have been even more aggressive in contrast? I might test it for myself to see? But I liked that look...A LOT.
Video editing was flawless. The music choice at the open set things up tonally very well indeed...and the ending felt more brutal as a result of what did (and did not) preceed it.

My two scores of 7 are reflective of the fact I dont think you could do a better job of the narrative with the material available and in that respect is indicative of what the clarity of plot felt like...It is not a reflection that I think more could be done.... On the contrary.

My 8 on visual quality is (as another reviewer commented) that I thought the B&W could have been more consistently graded but that could be an artefact of the original materials, my TV settings or even the source material (which is consistently dark so I imagine that this was far harder to grade than one might think).

I for one look forward to more bold re-imagining from Ranger 613 and thank him for the early view availability.

I for one will not be re-watching any Blade Runner fanedits again (I'm worn out & have settled on the Final Directors Cut)....EXCEPT THIS ONE sir!!!!....Cover printed, disc burnt...and on my shelf....(that's a high threshold indeed).

WELL DONE

W

This was a pretty damn enjoyable "alternate take" on a masterpiece. The structure works well for the most part, and succeeds in telling the story from the POV of the "villains".

Quality was good, but with the high-contrast B&W there is very noticeable pixelation throughout. It's not terrible and the B&W looks wonderful, so that makes up for it.

I definitely look forward to seeing what else Ranger makes.

"My friends are toys, I make them." You're making friends too ranger613, at a very quick pace with these high quality edits!

I was skeptical, oh yes. Mess with one of the best sci-fi/fantasy movies of all time? Very brave my friend. But your chosen course was brilliant - make Roy the main character rather than Decker. Make the viewer sympathize more with the replicants. This required some drastic cuts and reworking. You accomplished this very well, I had trouble remembering the original sequence of scenes - actually it was done so well I rarely ever thought about it.

The only break that seemed a bit rough was early on, from the Pris/Sebastian meeting to Roy's fist and his "not yet". I was not particularly keen on the fist as the intro to Roy - I understand it sets the stage immediately that he is running out of time, but I think we find out his situation soon enough and don't really need that, and we see him do that with his fist again later. That's my only narrative comment though!

Quality of audio/visual was perfect, at least for my system. I love Rachel's song moved to the end credits, a more somber and reflective ending. The hero is dead.

Black and white took some getting used to, but it actually helped me feel as if I was watching an entirely different movie. In some of the scenes however, I did miss the color and the depth it provides. And with black and white I found I could not see some of the detail that I eat up in a good sci-fi.

Conclusion - I most definitely felt more compassion for the replicants with this edit. With the "questionable things" the replicants did removed from the film, they became the good guys.

P.S. - DECKARD IS NOT A REPLICANT!!!!

For the most part, this edit works. I can be right in there and I believe that these poor androids are the heroes. Then the killing starts. In danger or not, there are things the "heroes" do that are undeniably villainous. I also thought it was a little strange to give Deckard as much screen-time as he got. Much of it made him seem to relatable, especially towards the end. Though that stuff really couldn't be removed, I believe it could have been edited (both visually and audibly) to make Roy seem more like a cowering animal lashing out, and Deckard is like the villain in a horror movie willing to do anything (Like re-adjust his broken fingers) but we spend too much time watching him be afraid for his life. That said, I reiterate that outside of those instances this edit works extremely well, especially in the scenes between Pris and Sebastian. Would recommend.

So I just finished watching this edit. I knew going in that it was going to be in B&W and more from the replicants point of view but beyond that I didn't know anything about specific changes (I didn't read the cut list).

I love Blade Runner and I won't waste time and space in my review of rangerkris's edit to blab on about my feelings about which version of the movie is my definitive, and who I think Deckard is etc. But the fact that I love this movie made me all the more interested in seeing this fanedit.

This edit takes a pretty interesting narrative approach. I understand the difficulties involves in trying to make a coherent narrative when you're excising so much of the movie. I won't bother nitpicking about personal preferences and what I liked/didn't like but for the most part the narrative worked.

Audio editing was well done, I can be a stickler/whiner/nitpicker/complainer when it comes to audio but I had no problems or complaints with the audio work. Also, props on that smooth bit of audio editing where Roy is talking to Chew and says "where can I find this....father". Very cool.

Visual editing there were a few choices that I would have done differently, nothing super-jarring, and I think what I was noticing was often a result of the restructuring of the story.

A/V Quality: this was a tough one. I really liked the B&W, it worked great for a noir-ish movie like Blade Runner. However the video quality was variable throughout the movie. Certain scenes there was a noticeable drop in quality (i.e. pixellation, as Neglify mentioned in his review). Other scenes ended up looking great. So a bit inconsistent.

Enjoyment: This was a fun, fast-paced edit. Definitely worth a watch if you're tired of watching Blade Runner (whatever your preferred version is) and want to see it in a new way.

Nice work.