Blade Runner - The Final Cut (2007)

Watched my DVD of Blade Runner - The Final Cut yesterday, bought the 5 disc set of what will now hopefully be the last time this film gets a DVD release.
As a film the changes were minimal, I spotted the odd change of dialogue or the odd quick new shot but for the most part it was more of a re-master of the print, what I did notice and it can be seen in these grabs is the film now has more of a blue tint to the scenes which I'm not sure I'm 100% on, the Tyrell building has always been this rusty coloured brown, like a Mayan pyramid but now it's whole look has changed, same as the shots in the police headquarters, the colour palette which was there seems to have been washed away mainly in favour of the blue again. And in the street scene, bottom pic of the stills below, the road sign/chevrons have gone from yellow to more of a green tint.
The first close-up shot we see of the Tyrell building windows with the elevator cars seems to hold for a bit longer before pulling in to show the closer view of the windows.

Dialogue changes now explains that 2 Replicants were killed trying to break in to the Tyrell Corporation as opposed to 1 in previous versions, though what is strange is the same scene in the Work Print version on disc 5 also states 2 were killed, so it went from 2 down to 1 in all the versions we've seen up to now, and then back up to 2. It does explain that it was the writers strike in the early 80 that put pay to the Replicant called Mary, they couldn't write any lines for the actress hired so the left her out. One continuity that still remains is Deckard's bloody nose as he buys the bottle of booze after he's killed Zhora, the blood on his nose is from the fight with Leon that he's yet still to have in the alleyway. If you read Future Noir it explains that this whole sequence had a different editorial order originally, thus once changed it created some continuity errors.

Regarding the death of Zhora, when I first heard that they were using Joanna Cassidy for re-shoots of this scene to replace the dodgy wigged stunt woman in previous versions I feared it would stand out like a sore thumb, I'm pleased to say it's been so expertly done that I don't think the average viewer would even notice a change. The visual FX are still some of the most beautiful optical FX and miniature work to grace a Science Fiction movie, and are more memorable than many FX today.

The one shot that bugged me like many people even from the first viewing was the shot as the dove flies up into the sky after Roy's death, I'm pleased to say that the replacement shot is very sympathetic to the original Matte Paintings and FX and fits in very well.

Film and changes aside, what really is the highlight of the box set is the Dangerous Days documentary, with interviews with all the major cast and crew, like most film classics from this period, it wasn't an easy task bringing Ridley Scott's vision to the screen, budget and schedule problems etc... producers trying to replace the director, crews not getting along with the director who wasn't from their country, very much like Lucas with Star Wars and James Cameron with Aliens, yet through all this turmoil and invention of new techniques came a masterpiece. Now these days they throw $300 million at a film like Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and all we get is overblown boredom.