Despite the narrowed spectrum of expression and the intentionally flattened palette of performance, language, and visual conception, the movie is a sensual delight.
There's nothing in the director Danny Boyle's visual conception or dramatic organization of the film that distinguishes itself from Sorkin's text — as, for instance, there is, profoundly, in David Fincher's filming of Sorkin's script for "The Social Network".
Though it's not an especially bold device, it's at least a clearly discernible one, which puts the film ahead of the visual conception of most of the movies in contention this year.
When Mahāyāna Buddhism reached Gandhāra during the 4th and 5th centuries ad, its sculptors turned to the Hellenistic world as a matter of course for a visual conception of Buddha and quickly evolved several Hellenistic versions.
What's impressive about the scene, in addition to its sheer kinetic delight, is Abrams's own evident joy: it's the only moment in the film where his visual conception and artistic imagination outstrips the demands of the script — and, above all, the film's moral tone — to evoke the dark side of pleasure in destruction.
Gondry could at least have been expected to lend the film an extravagant visual conception, and it's found, fleetingly, in fight sequences in which the sidekick Kato (Jay Chou), who is actually both the brains and the brawn of the operation, envisions them in variable-speed slow-motion before actually engaging in them.
These three categories are expressed in a visual conception of information.
The scenes flow together nicely, aided by a smart visual conception for the show.
For more on Blade Runner's visual conception, check out this behind-the-scenes video interview with Syd Mead.
Malick lets the work speak for him, but cinematographer John Toll, provides an audio commentary that details the visual conception of the film; and the second disc is packed with interviews from the cast and creative team along with bonus footage.
