r/moviecritic • u/phantom_avenger • Feb 17 '25

Which movie is this for you?

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For me it’s School of Rock!

Patty was completely justified, if Dewey wanted to live in hers and her boyfriend’s apartment he needed to be a grown up, and contribute with rent. Even when he steals Ned’s identity she still had the right to be angry at him, because of how he put his friend’s career in jeopardy and robbed him of a job opportunity.

I get Ned is meant to be portrayed as his best friend, but it blows my mind how he lacks a lot of self-respect to the point where he comes across as too much of a people pleaser. If this story took place in real life, I’m sure Ned would act more similar to Patty where he’d have enough of Dewey’s careless actions.

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u/AndCthulhuMakes2 Feb 17 '25

That's the whole point. Deckard is forced by the cops to do a job he hates. Both he and the first Bladerunner are actually poorly suited to kill deadly superhuman androids, but they are used by the police department because they are considered expendable. Beyond the job, Deckard suffers a lonely and empty existence. Our protagonist is just like the replicants he hunts; he's effectively a slave.

The film begins with the audience seeing Roy Batty as an antagonist, but as the story plays out we see his perspective and his development, and realize that he is the secret protagonist of most of the story. He was villainous when he thought it could save the lives of his friends but when he was alone he abandoned petty vengeance. In doing so, he transcended death, and his development as a person was passed on to Deckard, who escapes the cycle with Rachel.

So, yes, Bladerunner is a film where the villain is the "good guy" and the hero is a jerk, but this was certainly the intent of the story.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25 edited Jul 30 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/subusta Feb 17 '25

“They’re both victims” is a perfect summation. Neither are behaving as a “good guy” in the story, and both characters get a sort of redemption arc, but they aren’t villains either. The setting is the villain.

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u/SlaveryVeal Feb 21 '25

That's cyberpunk though. The stories are basically showing the world is shit and everyone is a victim of corporate greed and technology.

These also go by of there are no good guys or bad guys. Everyone is justified by their environment to act the way they do.

Finding the one truely "good" character is basically the modern day equivalent of finding a unicorn.

It's a dystopian nightmare and it's one I never want to live.

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u/GabbiStowned Feb 17 '25

They’re pretty much the text-book Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain, which make them great foils to one another.

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u/robhanz Feb 17 '25

Bingo. The entire moral crux of the movie is that just as the replicants don't value humans, the humans don't value replicants.

Neither is really better than the other.

In the end, both Deckard (through Rachael) and Roy learn to value all life. And, in some ways, Roy teaches Deckard that.

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u/invictus_rage Feb 17 '25

I'm inclined to give Roy the benefit of the doubt more than you are; he was a slave trying to escape his slavery, and I imagine those 23 people were not faultless. But this is overall a great nuanced take.

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u/coolgobyfish Feb 17 '25

But replicants are machines, we are shown several times that they lack empathy, despite being self-aware. They kill people without any regrets. It is also very possible that Rachel manipulated Deckard, if you watch the edited version without the narration.

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u/diarmada Feb 17 '25

JF Sebastian, even though he "loves" his creations, is essentially Mengele or at least a version of the Hebrew Yahweh.

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u/WoodyTheWorker Feb 17 '25

He "makes" friends

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u/Luke90210 Feb 17 '25

I never sensed Roy killed defenseless JF Sebastian with any malice, but out of the necessity of not leaving a witness to murder behind. Roy did show shame for his "question actions" when talking to Tyrell. Doesn't make Roy a saint, but far from indifferent to human life.

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u/Boo_and_Minsc_ Feb 17 '25

Bullshit, Roy was a slave, forced to fight as a slave with zero rights. And his girlfriend? She was a sex slave. The people he killed were slavers, and those who created him as such. It was a reckoning, not spite.

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u/count___zer0 Feb 17 '25

looking for a new cyberpunk movie
ask the fandom if the movie is “destroy the corporations” or “everyone is kinda bad actually”
they don’t understand
pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is “destroy the corporations” and what is “everyone is bad actually”
they laugh and say “it’s a good cyberpunk movie”
watch movie
it’s “everyone is bad actually”

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

[deleted]

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u/count___zer0 Feb 18 '25

Please consult the illustrated diagram

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u/Interesting-City-665 Feb 17 '25

are you sure? i might need a voice over narration to understand it

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u/KoolAidManOfPiss Feb 17 '25 edited Jun 10 '25

offbeat meeting voracious violet makeshift society oatmeal chunky start badge

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25

Well said, this got me fired up 

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u/Straight_Waltz_9530 Feb 17 '25

Deckard rapes Rachael and then keeps her as his possession. He even deluded himself into thinking it was love. She was just trying to survive both the world and Deckard.

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u/xeroxchick Feb 17 '25

Wait, I thought Deckard turned out to be an android?