Blade Runner 2049 2017
The original Blade Runner is one of my favorites. I even bought the soundtrack album on vinyl many years ago. So I was really looking forward to a sequel. I knew very little about the new movie going in but I think it might have been good to know a couple of things. First, the movie is pretty long at over two and a half hours. Also the emphasis is more on sci-fi stuff than action. The original was a futuristic noir detective movie, but this one has different pacing so that it only really gets moving in the last 30-45 minutes, with most of the rest of the movie being setup. I think that’s fine, but I was worried it was getting long and I might have to wait for another sequel (Ridley Scott is working on three prequels to Alien) to find anything out. It works out, but I was wondering. One thing I did know was that Harrison Ford would be in the movie, so I kept waiting for him to show up, and it is a long wait. So that made the movie seem longer and more drawn out as well.
I still enjoyed the movie. It is distinctly different from the first one. First, a lot of time has passed in the movie’s world as well since the original was set in 2019 and this is 2049, so the dystopian future has had a few more knocks along the way. Ryan Gosling does a great job in this movie, able to do the action stuff as well as some pretty good acting. The other characters aren’t quite as likable as in the earlier movie, when even the bad guys had a lot going for them. In that sense this is a darker movie, not that hunting down humanoid robots was particularly uplifting. There are a lot of mysteries here with different factions coming in almost like a spy thriller, and I think that part is enjoyable and is what makes this movie so different from the first. Also the future world is again very cool, but very bleak, this time maybe a little grayer. There are enough confusing things happening that I feel like watching it again is warranted and could make this better (if it all gels) or not (if it isn’t really worth it). For the visuals, acting, cool stuff, and the fact that this is a sequel to one of my favorite movies, I am tempted to give this movie an A or A-, but in terms of how much I enjoyed the movie, it is more like a B+.
Written: 08 Oct 2017
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital