Blade Runner 2049 releases tonight, and you can bet I'm off to see it. I've been hyped for a while, and after hearing amazing things about it - I thought I'd celebrate and satisfy my excitement with a smaller, yet more fun blog on Ridley Scott's original 1982 Blade Runner, and it's main character of Rick Deckard played by Harrison Ford. Being the main Blade Runner himself, this character has to be good at his job, that job being tracking down and killing rogue replicants. Thing is, he's a pretty incompetent (I love that word) character, one that I really could care less about. Here's why.

For me, Deckard is the only thing about the film I'm not crazy about. He's the main character we follow through the story, but he's not a nice guy, and he's not very tough or strong here really. He's played fine by Ford, but honestly I feel a lot more empathy to the antagonist replicants of the film, especially Roy played amazingly by Rutger Hauer. Deckard is terrible at what he does. I mean sure he's great at tracking down and doing detective work in finding Roy and his squad, and these are some of the most interesting parts of the film. But in a time where you'd expect Deckard to be a masculine icon, in a genre with plenty of them as there is - he's not all that masculine. That can be a good thing, but for this guy to basically be a police officer of sorts, you'd expect him to have some combat skills, or at least a lot if he's being asked by Gaff to come back amongst all the other Blade Runner's. But Deckard, amazingly, is kicked around, shoved about, beaten senselessly and almost always left for dead and is saved by chance or luck. Is that a bad thing? No! Honestly, some of the best moments are the action scenes when he's being beaten up - for Ford's gawping and facial expressions alone, they're hilarious. They never fail to make me laugh. And, his final fight with Roy is one of the greatest ending fight scenes in movie history for me. But you can't help but laugh at him and wonder what kind of hero this guy is supposed to be. It's funny!

Not to mention this guy is a little bit of a... let's say misogynist. Forcing Rachael to have sex with him is always uncomfortable to watch, almost as bad as Roy squashing Tyrell's eyes in. Yeah, he's not a nice guy. Maybe, and from what it looks like, Deckard's character will be expanded on in 2049. With the ambiguous ending and Ridley Scott's adamancy that Deckard is a replicant himself, it poses new questions of course. And it's very true that during the 'tears in rain' scene, Rick seems to change himself, shifting perspective. All that being said however, he's no Han Solo, and I'm sure Ford would agree.