Blade Runner 2049

Los Angeles 2049.  During a routine retirement of a Replicant, Blade Runner Officer K discovers a long buried secret that could change the destiny of humanity forever.  His investigation uncovers dark secrets from decades prior, putting him in the crosshairs of the Wallace Corporation and its Replicant assassins.  K’s only lead is tied to Rick Deckard, a former Blade Runner who vanished thirty years ago.  As the line between what is human and what is not blurs even further, K and Deckard will be forced to confront their own origins to discover the keys to their separate futures.

This is…a tough one.

A couple years back when it was announced that Warner Bros. was officially going ahead with a sequel to the 1982 scifi masterpiece, Blade Runner, I was upset.  As you might have noticed in my Blade Runner review a couple of days ago, I love that movie quite a bit.  It was a visual marvel with ideas and concepts that still resonate with me today and with other filmmakers of all genres.  Expanding on it, or touching it, in general felt like treading on sacred ground.  After all, how often do we get sequels to films decades later that actually are any good?  Well, the first trailers came out and…I began to ease up.  It looked like Blade Runner.  It felt like Blade Runner.  Could it be Blade Runner?  Part of me really wanted that answer to be “no.”  After the colossal failure of Ghost in the Shell earlier this year, a film based on an Anime heavily influenced by Blade Runner, I was prepared to be disappointed, ready to hate with every fiber of my being.

And…

I wasn’t disappointed?

Nope.  It might not be the great 10/10 many advance reviews have been claiming, not for me anyway.  Still, Blade Runner 2049 somehow manages to be something I didn’t think it could be, or wanted it to be in a way…it’s a very strong sequel that sometimes matches, sometimes surpasses its predecessor…and…well let’s get into the details a little bit.

From the thundering sounds of the introductory music track to the panning shots of a mistier, less glamorous 2049 Los Angeles, the beginning of the film solidifies that this sequel isn’t out to recreate the magic of the first film.  It can acknowledge it but it’s goal is to build on it and slowly become its own thing.  Here is succeeds.  Blade Runner 2049 is a vastly different film from Blade Runner, both in story and in aesthetic.  Director Denis Villeneuve shows us a Los Angeles that might now be beyond its glory days.  Even without the knowledge I gleamed from Blade Runner Blackout 2022, you can tell that time has not been kind to this city, which is bleaker, greyer and less kind than the overcrowded, colorful soup that was presented in the first film.  And yet, it is still freaking GORGEOUS.  A mix of model and CG work, this still feels like Rick Deckards future but evolved and expanded.  Heck, even the old Tyrell Pyramids are still present, despite now being in the shadows of the massive Wallace Corporation megastructures.  Villeneuve knows how to let the visuals do much of the storytelling without everything being explained outright, from the abandoned outskirts of a nuclear wasteland to skyscraper sized hologram commercials.  Don’t get me wrong, Ghost in the Shell had good visuals as well.  But it could only wish it was as good looking as Blade Runner 2049.  I especially liked the dark and hellish backdrops of the Wallace Corporation interior and ill get to the why in a moment. 

So yeah, the film looks good, does it have a good cast and story to compliment?  Yes to both.  Ryan Gosling isn’t “ahem” replicating Harrison Ford from the first movie.  He is his own tortured soul as K, a tough guy who can only be tough for so long before he breaks under the pressure of his tough case.  Harrison Ford plays a much older, far more weary Deckard, a far cry from the bad ass he was long ago.  It actually takes us a bit to get to Deckard but when we do, it’s so good to see him again.  Ford and Gosling play well off of each other, two generations of Blade Runner who have seen and done things that have left them losing bits and pieces of their humanity, K faster than Deckard it seems.  Ana de Armas is one of my personal favs as K’s beautiful hologram lover, Joi.  I actually like their chemistry and their love story, I think it’s stronger than the “love story” shared by Deckard and Rachel in the previous film.  Joi may be holographic but there’s a wisdom to go along with her beauty that manages to keep K grounded and connected to something.  Plus, cant say this enough sorry, she’s so freaking beautiful.  Dave Bautista has a very short but very dramatic turn as Sapper in the beginning of the film.  It’s good to see the big guy flexing his dramatic muscles while getting in some good action.  We have a nice dose of female bad ass in the form of Robin Wright as K’s boss, Madame Joshi (two roles of leadership for Princess Buttercup in the same year, go girl).  There’s also Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, Wallace’s Replicant Assistant.  This girl is the TX from Terminator 3 done right, a heartless beast with no qualms about getting her hands dirty while doing her job and she makes for a nice rival for K.  And then there’s Wallace, played by Jared Leto.  He’s one of the most interesting characters in his stark contrast to Tyrell from the original film.  Tyrell might have had a heavenly setting for his office, the idea that he is God of this world of synthetics but I never got the God complex vibe from him like I do from Wallace.  Tyrell was more interested in the science and complexity (as shown in his conversations with Deckard and Roy Batty).  Wallace is a far more sinister figure, a man with a God complex so obvious he sounds like his own personal preacher spouting his own gospel.  As I said about his choice of décor for his offices, theyre dark, watery, almost underworld like than heavenly.  It’s both creepy and fascinating, like many parts of this movie.

The story is both a continuation and a decent stand alone tale, though I would recommend some knowledge of Blade Runner lore before entering.  As I said above, Deckard doesn’t come in until much later in the film.  This is K’s story for the most part and for that same most part, it’s a tale I never got bored with.  Many of Blade Runners themes of identity and reality vs. fantasy are back and played up in different ways.  The more we get to know K and how he handles his day to day life, the more we know this guy is beyond damaged, more so than the Replicants he retires.  He has questions he only seems to confide in with to Joi, who in turn offers little answers but a lot of faith.  To go deeper into what the main story is would spoil the film itself and I don’t think this is a movie that should be spoiled.  Any theories you had after watching the first film will be well rewarded and even given new levels of curiosity to explore, furthering my opinion that this is a natural expansion rather than a rehash as many might have feared. 

I suppose it couldn’t be avoided, me looking for ways not to score this film 10/10.  Seeing as how I love the first film so much, it couldn’t be helped but my nitpicks might be minimal.  The biggest one is the runtime.  As I said, I was never bored by 2049, I was entranced a lot.  Still, clocking in at almost 3 hours in length, you will begin to feel it eventually.  The pace is about the same as the first film as well with little action in between long periods of story and character development.  I wont say it dragged, I just wonder if it could have been cut down by half an hour or so.  I do wish we had gotten to Deckard a bit sooner and I wanted more time with him and K.  Lastly, the soundtrack has some really good moments and it fits the atmosphere…it’s just not the 1982 Vangelis score.  That seems petty but Vangelis crafted something that I don’t think has been matched in cinema since (though I feel Yoko Kanno has been doing a good job learning from it with Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex).  I feel kind of bad writing that as Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch do give us some very appropriate tunes.  I do think the score was at its best harkening back to the original film.  There is one piece used in a key scene that made me come close to tears…to say more would spoil why.

Is it a 10? No.  Is it a 9? Yes, it is a very, very, very strong 9 for me.  And really, I never expected to rate it that high.  Blade Runner 2049 brings back much of what made Blade Runner work in the first place and forges its own path to greatness, greatness I never thought was possible.  The story will keep you guessing and yet not caring you might not get exact answers cause its so enthralling.  The old guard and the new guard gel really well.  The visuals and set designs feel like expansions than exact replicas.  This movie is Blade Runner, returned after a lengthy absence with aged appeal and fresh new ideas to captivate a both a new audience and old fans alike.  Maybe with future screenings I might be able to give it a 10.  For now a 9 seems right for me but it’s not out of spite.  I didn’t want to like this movie, I was ready to hate it.  But as I start closing out this review, part of me is relieved I was wrong.  This movie surpassed every one of my low expectations.  If you liked the first film, I’d definitely recommend checking out this film.  In a way, if I likened the first Blade Runner to Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner 2049 is definitely the Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence of the duo.  It’s prettier, grander, asks the same questions in addition to new ones…and more than earns the right to stand alongside a movie I think fondly of as a dear old friend.

Congratulations Blade Runner 2049…you’ve proven me wrong and I’m so happy you were able to.  I thought “I’d…seen things you people wouldn’t believe.”  Turns out, I hadn’t seen anything yet.

9/10