Released: 2017
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated: R (UK – 15)
“The key to the future is finally unearthed.”
What is it to be human? To LAPD Blade Runner K (Ryan Gosling; The Notebook, La La Land) it is servitude; uncompromising, complete and utter servitude. From the beginning, it’s all that K knows. Outside stimulus seems to pass him by like swimming through a thick fog of reality. During a seemingly routine encounter, K discovers something miraculous. Unknown to human or replicant kind, it just so happened to be the one event that made him question everything. Everything being his purpose, hunting. Why does he hunt?
K spends his time off with his hologram partner Joi (Anna de Armas; War Dogs, Hands of Stone). A strange relationship that flips the idea of love and companionship on its head in a similar way to how the Deckard/Rachel relationship once did. Can someone truly love something that isn’t really human? K can’t comprehend this. Which is very much apparent from the get-go as his awkward movements and mimicry of his cohorts show a need for humanity and emotion, but also a distance to it. A lack of understanding due to his life as essentially a slave.
I want to tell you to stop reading this. If you have read this far you already know too much about this film. I, like many others, had no inkling what the new Blade Runner would be. We just had a name, K, an image of the original film’s protagonist Deckard, a couple of colourful stills, and an uneasy feeling in our stomachs. That modernizing Blade Runner would ruin the beauty of the original. So, stop if you have not seen this movie. You owe it to yourself to watch it. Lie back and rejoice in the beautiful world of 2049.
If I were to reveal anything about the plot, it would ruin your viewing experience, but I will surmise here what I can with minimal spoilers. There is a Blade Runner called K who witnesses something he can’t quite understand. He sets out to find an answer against everything he has ever known to be true. Eventually, he comes face to face with an aging Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford; Star Wars, Indiana Jones). I refuse to explain any more than that because every scene every frame in 2049 is a painting, a plot that unfolds with every passing moment, a very rare thing to see, writing so tightly knit that everything on camera pushes the plot forward.
If the original Blade Runner had a casualty as films do (for example, The Avengers had New York being decimated as a casualty, while Infinity war had the whole universe), then the casualty was comfort within certainty of thought. Rick Deckard was a man and Roy Batty was a manufactured machine. It was a simple certainty that the audience had. However, by the end of the film, you may not be quite so sure of that fact. Blade Runner 2049 takes that to another level. In a new world, the replicants of old no longer exist and Roy Batty’s display of humanity leaves a legacy. In 2049, the love that exists between mutual partners has been redefined. Everything you thought you knew about the world of Blade Runner comes to a screeching halt about halfway through the film. The plot is simply a genius stroke of writing that makes you stop and think. Maybe it will redefine the answers you thought you once had about Blade Runner.
It is very plain to see that actors were chosen with scrutiny as every performance is possibly one of the greatest within their respective careers (the weakest being possibly Harrison Ford’s). The holographic, romantic companion Joi playing a much greater role in the universe than I ever thought she could possibly be. The small amount of time that Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista; Guardians of the Galaxy, Spectre) was on screen demonstrated the acting chops of ex-pro wrestler Dave Bautista who stole the scene from Gosling in a moment somewhat reminiscent of the iconic “Wake up! Time to die” moment from the original.
The action scenes are very few but extremely brutal and hair-raising to watch while also telling a story. So many films have action just for the sake of having action, but Blade Runner 2049 uses it sparingly and effectively. Unfortunately, there is one glaring flaw, well, two to be specific but both tie into each other. Jared Leto’s (Dallas Buyers Club, Requiem for a Dream) character Niander Wallace, seemingly the most dramatic man in the world, often exemplifying replicants by killing them, and chewing the scenery too hard and too long. This ties into the fact that he is essentially only there to serve half the plot and build for a sequel. You could argue that it is simply Blade Runner moving the ambiguity it is so well known for into a future tense, but I highly doubt that. If he was cut from the film, it wouldn’t damage the plot too greatly. Another complaint that didn’t bother me much was the film’s lacked brevity as shots linger a few minutes too long and many times characters can simply be seen stopping, staring at something, or walking. Again it wasn’t something that bothered me and I will explain why.
Blade Runner 2049 is one of the most beautiful films that has ever graced a silver screen. A fully realized vision by director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Arrival). A retro-futuristic world that lives and breathes colour and variety that was all made possible by the artists and writers involved. 2049 takes the groundwork of the original and drops acid into the mix along with a semi-religious iconography that takes your eyes and mind to a place you never thought possible. It tells you a story of hope and love in a world that once told you those things were too abstract to be real. In a cinemascape of post-apocalyptic architecture and over-designed robots with zero Ethos or Pathos, Blade Runner 2049 shines brightly to totem for tomorrow. In a land of continuous reuse, remakes, and excuses for film, Blade Runner 2049 is a shining chariot of what films can be.
I could simply talk at length about any piece of art be it music, film, video games, comic books, paintings, etc. I can pass my opinion which is modestly experienced and aged with a plethora of digested and regurgitated knowledge, but unfortunately, it is simply that, an opinion. I could say that, in my opinion, Francis Bacon is far greater an artist than Salvador Dali. Yes, that would indeed be an unpopular one, but I believe it to be true. It is simply an opinion and with reviews, it is an opinion accompanied by a scoring system letting the audience know how well a film may be received. Most opinions are better formed on your own with your own eyes and ears and experiences. Just like the world of Blade Runner, everything is ambiguous and subjective. I can say this is the greatest film I’ve ever watched. Many people say it’s the greatest pile of steaming fecal matter they ever had the misfortune to endure. As Rick Deckard did at the end of the first film when he decided it was time to think for himself, got the girl and ran for the sake of a life of a coward and the woman he loved, sometimes you have to take an experience and just run with it. You have to act like you are sitting in a movie theatre in the dark, not being able to see or hear anything but what is on the screen. Experience it for yourself.
Rating:
Thomas C:
There simply is nothing left to say. Wake up. Stop reading. Watch Blade Runner 2049 before the memory is lost… like tears in the rain.
Further watching: Ghost In The Shell an awesome mix of Blade Runner and The Matrix in an anime aesthetic, posing harder questions than either.
Further reading: Neuromancer by William Gibson. It would be just far too easy to say go read the Blade Runner source material in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. However, William Gibson is the granddaddy of all cyberpunk and Neuromancer, a tale of high-tech low-lifes is where you should continue the cyberpunk journey.
Further Playing: Deus Ex. Deus Ex gets a lot of unfair comparisons to The Matrix and cyberpunk in general when it is clearly a masterpiece of its own creation by industry veterans such as Warren Spector and Harvey Smith. Later games in the series have some blatantly obvious Blade Runner scenery.
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