Yeah, the film could have had more content about the real/artificial animals though it did feature a bit with the snake scales and the owl.
Also agree about meeting the other agency though I can imagine that would have complicated the plot a bit (disclaimer - I haven't read Androids for many years and can't remember the details of that scene).
I just think that Mercerism was a superb concept - a participatory religion. I suppose it wouldn't have really driven the story forwards in the film whereas almost every scene in the film was doing that.
Incidentally, here's PKD's short story about Mercerism: https://sickmyduck.narod.ru/pkd092-0.html
> can't remember the details of that scene
Deckard gets arrested by a different police agency - they think they're the only ones, just like Deckard's agency. He gets accused of being an android with implanted memories.
They administer Voigt-Kampf tests to each other and while everyone ends up as human, the scene serves to make who's human and who isn't even more of a question.
What really ticks me off about all movies made from Dick's writings is that they cut off most of the ambiguity.
I shudder to think what they'd make of Ubik or A Maze of Death...
I'd love them to get around to attempting Ubik - it's a shame that Gondry abandoned his attempt.
In terms of ambiguity, surely Blade Runner is a prime example of ambiguity and the dichotomies between real/fake, light/dark, salvation/damnation, hunter/hunter etc. There's also the very significant portrayal of Roy Batty as both the villain and a Christ-like figure (e.g. nail in his hand, confronting his maker and both kissing and killing him).
Yeah, I wonder if whoever wrote the script confused Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with Divine Invasion and added Christian motives from there :)
It really really ticks me off too, because it makes multiple watchings much more interesting, and the writing has much more depth.