The Offenders: The Fifth Element, Total Recall (2012), most near-future, Earth-set films. Star Wars popularised the idea of a used future, but it was Blade Runner that gave all subsequent of sci-fi a ready-made design. The rain drenched L.A., with its towering skyscrapers and giant moving billboards, skewed close enough to reality that it was a conceivable world just a few decades from ours. And it feels like we've been living in that world for three decades now. Blade Runner's world was so convincing that filmmakers en masse bought into the idea, turning 'Blade Runner derivative' into an archetypal genre design. The problem with all this is that a world doesn't feel unique if we've seen it on screen countless times before. When thinking of the future there's an opportunity for a director to use their imagination to create something truly special, so to fall back on convention feels out of place in a genre that used to be all about the ideas. What the copying films really lack to pull off the look is the tone. Blade Runner is a fully immersed neo-noir that could only be more blatant about it if there was a drawling voice over (actually, scratch that). So the grime, rain and dingy light all really help add to that; the design has a purpose.
