"For director Ridley Scott…the greater challenge seemed to be creating that future world. Scott is a master of production design, of imagining other worlds of the future (Alien) and the past (The Duellists). He seems more concerned with creating his film worlds than populating them with plausible characters, and that's the trouble this time. Blade Runner is a stunningly interesting visual achievement, but a failure as a story."  
-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times (1982), collected in the book Roger Ebert's Movie Home Companion (1990)

"Although handicapped by a script that takes a bit too much from the detective films of the late 1940's, director Scott makes each scene count visually. Science fiction fans will revel in the complexities of Lawrence G. Paul's elaborate production design, a wondrous maze of steam and slime that obviously has Scott's stamp on it… Weaknesses aside, Blade Runner is a stunning piece of work. Though Scott's view of the future is a cynical one, his dedication to bringing that vision to life is artistry itself."  
-- David Linck, Boxoffice Magazine (August 1982)

"Blade Runner doesn't engage you directly; it forces passivity on you. It sets you down in this lopsided maze of a city, with its post-human feeling, and keeps you persuaded that something bad is about to happen. Some the scenes seem to have six subtexts but no text, and no context either. There are suggestions of Nicolas Roeg in the odd, premonitory atmosphere, but Roeg gives promise of something perversely sexual. With Scott, it's just something unpleasant or ugly."
-- Pauline Kael, New Yorker (July 12, 1982), anthologized in the collection For Keeps (1996)

"As an illusion, the movie is a masterpiece… Ultimately, even the human character's failure to engage our sympathies is part of Blade Runner's vision of a dehumanizing future in which it's hard to tell real people from ersatz humans."  
-- Joseph Gelmis, New York Newsday (September 11, 1992), anthologized in the National Society of Film Critics collection, They Went That Way (1994)

"So why see Blade Runner when it's 10 years old, it's available in the video stores…? Let me count the ways… The film is great on every level: the poignant screenplay about man's futile quest for immortality; Scott's tremendous direction; the incredible, futuristic sets…; the phenomenal special effects; and the touching performances, especially from Hauer, a replicant fighting against the ebbing of his life. His swan song is one of the most touching in modern movie history."  
-- Desson Howe, The Washington Post (September 11, 1992)