Blade Runner 2049
07/10/17 Filed in: Cinema
After setting the scene by viewing the original Blade Runner last Monday, yesterday we went to see the long overdue sequel. I normally give a fairly detailed review of a film's plot, but in fairness to the director of this latest offering I'm not going to do that on this occasion. You need to be surprised by this film and telling too much would ruin it.
So what can I say? Ryan Gosling plays a blade runner, officer K, continuing the theme of the original film, where these special police officers track down replicants and 'retire' them. K is a newer type of replicant that is programmed to obey. His job is to hunt down the older less disciplined models. But he turns out to be somewhat more complicated. Los Angles doesn't seem to have moved on much from the earlier film. It still presents a mixture of futuristic hi-tech and metropolitan dilapidation; it's still constantly misty and there is still a lot of rain. It's a future-noir.
K has a live-in woman, Joi, in the form of an advanced holographic AI entity, so real that he can interact with her. It's an intriguing technological addition to his otherwise down-market apartment. Joi becomes a constant companion after K frees her from the confines of the apartment, using what I assume to be a mobile holographic projector. It is a gift from him to her. There's a lovely scene where she goes out onto the balcony for the first time and feels the novelty of rain. A novelty that would soon wear off I should think!
K's life becomes difficult when he is given the task of tracking down a child that is believed to have been born to a replicant, raising concerns in a number of quarters. In time this leads him to question his own memories and eventually results in a meeting with Rick Deckard, the blade runner in the original film. But this meeting occurs late in the film after the story line has been carefully developed, pulling together many elements of the earlier film. Things move along quite slowly (2h 43m), which was one of the criticisms of the original film. But this ensures that the characters and the scenarios are fully developed, and while I was conscious that it was a long film, it certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment.
On the baddie side of the equation we have a megalomaniacal industrialist Niander Wallace with a rather attractive if decidedly unfriendly enforcer, Luv, a replicant who certainly obeys but isn't somebody you would want to upset. Of course, quite a few people do get on the wrong side of her, including officer K.
This film will keep you intrigued, and will almost certainly misdirect you along the way. The ending is beautiful, while remaining open to perhaps a further instalment, although personally I'm not sure that that would be a good idea.
Fantastic direction, great acting, superb cinematography and a well conceived plot should ensure that this Blade Runner will become equally iconic as the original.
K's life becomes difficult when he is given the task of tracking down a child that is believed to have been born to a replicant, raising concerns in a number of quarters. In time this leads him to question his own memories and eventually results in a meeting with Rick Deckard, the blade runner in the original film. But this meeting occurs late in the film after the story line has been carefully developed, pulling together many elements of the earlier film. Things move along quite slowly (2h 43m), which was one of the criticisms of the original film. But this ensures that the characters and the scenarios are fully developed, and while I was conscious that it was a long film, it certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment.
On the baddie side of the equation we have a megalomaniacal industrialist Niander Wallace with a rather attractive if decidedly unfriendly enforcer, Luv, a replicant who certainly obeys but isn't somebody you would want to upset. Of course, quite a few people do get on the wrong side of her, including officer K.
This film will keep you intrigued, and will almost certainly misdirect you along the way. The ending is beautiful, while remaining open to perhaps a further instalment, although personally I'm not sure that that would be a good idea.
Fantastic direction, great acting, superb cinematography and a well conceived plot should ensure that this Blade Runner will become equally iconic as the original.