BLADE RUNNER 2049

“I had your job once…”

I’ll admit, I only watched Blade Runner for the first time yesterday, and honestly, it didn’t leave the best impression in my mind. While it was a visually impressive film for its age and the general concept was one I found to be really interesting, it seemed to mistake mystery and world building for two hours of boredom. Looking back, it can be cut down to roughly eight scenes, which begs the question what the hell were the other 90 minutes for? Anyway, it slightly dampened the hopes I had for its newly released sequel, Blade Runner 2049. However, now that film is here and I finally gotten around to seeing it, let’s begin the review.

Taking place thirty years after the events of the first film, Blade Runner 2049 sees K, a replicant detective, uncover a long-hidden secret that leads him to search into his own past and find Rick Deckard, who has been missing for decades. Much like the first film, the plot in itself is actually fairly strong, but its delivery is let down by some very, very slow pacing. While admittedly this does work in some places, there are moments were scenes feel like they’re in the wrong place, and maybe don’t even need to be there at all. However, back to the plot at hand, and it does provide one of the best that a newly revived franchise can deliver without flat-out copying the first film. 2049 feels like a different film to the original, but it doesn’t stray too far from the essence of what it should be, and in that way, the film does itself a great justice.

Speaking of the essence of the original, 2049 fits into the world of Blade Runner almost perfectly. If you pay attention, you can see small jumps in technological advancement here and there, but nothing too extreme. It feels like a return to the grimy streets of the first film, and it fits in very nicely.

As you can see, the look and feel of Blade Runner is alive and well. One specific touch I liked was that it never seemed to be sunny in Los Angeles, it only ever rained. A nice contradiction that helps set the franchise aside from the real world.

Along with some impressive world re-creating, Blade Runner 2049 delivers some hugely impressive cinematography. From the start to finish, the film is filled with some of modern cinema’s best shots. The finale in particular was delivered beautifully, considering how dark it was for that part of the film. Actually, if you want a taste of the film’s cinematography, look no further than the first trailer, which by the way is a masterclass in how to promote a film without giving the entire plot away…

Onto the cast, and the main lead comes in the form of Ryan Gosling’s K, the Blade Runner at the heart of 2049's story...

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the biggest Ryan Gosling fan on the planet. That being said, he was very good in 2016’s The Nice Guys, so I went in with at least some optimism. As it turns out, Gosling is one of the film’s strongest aspects. Whereas I was expecting another charisma-less cop, Gosling brings some great emotional range to the role, and some of the smaller moments in the film revolve almost entirely around his delivery, and it rarely fails.

The film’s other major player comes in the form of Harrison Ford’s Deckard, the star of the original…

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write for this section. The movie takes a long time to get around to Deckard, by which point K’s story was in full motion. Then when the moment finally came, it felt a bit…mediocre. It’s not that Ford doesn’t give a strong performance, by all means he does, it’s just that Deckard isn’t exactly my favourite of his characters, so it didn’t have as bigger impact as I hoped it would. That being said, Ford bring his all to the last act of the film, and it only improves by having him there.

All in all, Blade Runner 2049 is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I much prefer the first viewing of this one than the first film, but at the same time, it’s not exactly my ideal vision for a film. The plot is strong, but the slow pacing means the 2 hours and 44-minute run-time is felt more than it should be, and I never quite found myself lost in the film like I usually do. I’m sure it will grow on me in time, and I look forward to that. The visual effects help the film to no end and the score is impressive, but at times feels hugely over-powering when it really doesn’t need to, even if it is a perfect blend of the original’s with something new. The performances are good from start to end and no-one lets the team down, but 2049’s strongest aspect for me was definitely it’s world building and cinematography. It fits into the universe of the original almost flawlessly and it’s delivery on the big screen is next-to-none. So then, a good film that could’ve been great given some faster pacing, but by no means a bad spectacle in the process.