Blade Runner 2049

<<

Now Playing

>>

Allow me to preface this review with a simple fact about myself that tends to blow everyone's mind. When it comes to 'Blade Runner', it's one of those classic movies I ultimately have respect for, but for whatever reason, I just can't really and truly get into. I've seen it three times in my life now, once on the big screen, and it still just does nothing for me. I blame this on the fact that my first viewing of it wasn't until about 2009 or 2010. By then, effects had advanced, and the whole idea of a dark, dystopian future was officially one of those things that was cool, but old news. So personally, it never really grasped me like it did with others.

Still though, as I mentioned, I do have a respect for it being (arguably) "the first" to do it. In it's own way, it holds up as well, giving us an almost more believable futuristic setting than a lot of sci-fi manages to pull off. It's not without it's charm, I get the message about artificial intelligence and humanit emotion, I don't hate it, I don't love it, it just plain and simply wasn't for me. So when '2049' came along, I wasn't exactly pumped to see it, but I figured I'd check it out just to see if we had another "sequel-fail" on our hands. I'm gonna go ahead and say, for the most part, "no, this is actually a good sequel!"

Taking place in a sort of real-time style, 30 years after the events of the original film, fans will be happy to notice that the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same. The way I would put it is that the setting feels like the future of the original universe. They didn't go all out with their CG effects or anything, and it feels respectful.

In this future, Replicants have been integrated into society. A newer model named K (Ryan Gosling) is brought in to work for the LAPD, as the perfect model who would "obey" their orders. His mission is to work as a Blade Runner, and to hunt and "retire" the older, rebellious models. As his mission unfolds, he uncovers more hard truths about the Replicant freedom movement, as well as himself, and the whole thing becomes a pretty solid detective story. So yeah, it's a good plot, and it stays true to the original's overall style and ideas while remaining it's own thing. I really do think that if you are a big fan of the original, you'll get what you're looking for here.

There are a few things I'll have to forewarn about though. First and foremost, the trailer features Harrison Ford reprising his original role. If you go into this expecting it to be 'The Ford and Gosling Show', you might be disappointed. Personally, I think what they did with him worked and I'm happy this didn't become a team-up movie. But anyone looking for him won't find him until the last half hour to 40 minutes or so, in a 2 and a half hour long movie. Which brings me to my next point - it moves rather slowly. There's a whole first hour that may have been able to be narrowed down to a half hour for plot, as a lot of it is showing us the environment. Visually, it works quite nicely, but with little dialogue and a lot of deadpan speech, there IS a boring-factor to it all.

It's all gonna depend on how you found the original to be. If you thought it was this big, genius thing that changed the face of cinematic history and you praise it for all it's worth then I think it's safe to say that the sequel delivers in a big way, especially after 30 years time. If you're like me, however, you might find it dragging and somewhat boring, despite it's beautiful visual style and great acting from everyone involved. I feel about this the same as I felt about the first. It has my respect, and it will work for the fans, but it wasn't entirely for me.

3/5

---