Blade Runner is one of the few good novel-to-film adaptations ever made, imho. Although the film leaves out some central themes and plot material (most notably the whole Mercer/empathy deal), it gets the mood of the book EXACTLY right. Get the 1992 director's cut or the 2007 final cut (which is almost the same, really), because the original theatrical release is awful in comparison. Scott was forced to change the ending (to a sweet and corny "and they lived happily ever after" one) and also to add a voice-over after morons in the test audience had complained that they didn't know what was going on. Normally I like voice-overs (they give you that lovely hard-boiled film noir feeling), but Harrison Ford, who also felt the addition was completely unnecessary, did such a poor job on it, in the hope that it wouldn't get added after all... But I don't have to tell what happened I guess.
/rant about dumbed-down movie audiences and the sell-out producers who cater to them.
