Blade Runner 2049 Review

The movie "Blade Runner" has a unique history. It was initially released in 1982 to poor box office results. Before that, though, its early screenings went so bad that the studio decided to throw on some voice over and attach on a happy ending in hopes that general audiences would be happy about the movie. After the aforementioned poor box office results, it eventually caught on after release and became a cult classic. In 1992, a director's cut of the film was released that took away the voice over and the happy ending, but it wasn't a true director's cut as it was put together based on Ridley Scott's notes. Ridley Scott himself wasn't happy with that release either. It wasn't until 2007 when Scott finally got involved and put together a final cut that he was happy about and actually had full say in everything. The movie is seen as a revolutionary sci-fi film that inspired a lot of movies that we all love today. Despite that, I, for some reason, managed to never see it. It was always one of those movies on my list to eventually catch up on, but never got around to until the release of "Blade Runner 2049" gave me an excuse to. No way was I going to go into the sequel without seeing the original. Now that I've seen both, it's time to dive into this interesting franchise.

I don't want to spend too much time on "Blade Runner" itself because I'd rather focus most of this review on the original, but nevertheless I think I am at a bit of a disadvantage at having not seen "Blade Runner" until 2017. It's a bit of a slow, though-provoking film that dives deep into the themes of human vs. technology. I think a lot of humanity is scared of technology getting too advanced, thus in Hollywood we see almost every movie about artificial intelligence going completely awry with the robots we've created overtaking us and ruling the earth. In fact, I can't really think of a movie off the top of my head that portrays artificial intelligence as a positive thing. It's almost always negative. And that's what "Blade Runner" is all about. Humans created these artificial intelligence that this universe has called replicas, but things went so bad that they've become illegal on this planet. Now there are certain people working as blade runners whose job is to hunt down and "retire" the replicas that are on the earth. Harrison Ford is one of said blade runners and the movie is about him hunting down and killing four specific replicas. But he falls in love with one of them while hunting the others down and then there are questions about if he himself is actually a replica.

You see, that was all super interesting and everything, but I finished the movie thinking that I've seen this premise a thousand times, but better. Yet I got to thinking that it's quite possible that the movies I deem better may not have happened had it not been for "Blade Runner" paving the way with this idea. Thus is why I say I'm at a disadvantage by waiting until 2017 to see this. Perhaps if I were alive in 1982 when this was released or had seen this movie when I was younger, maybe I would think differently. But as is, despite it being done very well, it didn't seem that special of a movie to me. Yet I still loved the fantastic visuals and mesmerizing score, and I was excited to return to this universe in "Blade Runner 2049" being that my man Denis Villeneuve was the man in the director's chair for this film. If you don't know Villeneuve by now, you need to. I haven't seen some of his earlier films, but recently he is responsible for "Prisoners," "Sicario" and "Arrival," three very good films. I would go as far as saying he is one of the best directors in the business. All you need to do to get my attention is to let me know that he is directing a film and I will be in the theater watching that film as soon as I can. He has not disappointed me yet and that streak continues with "Blade Runner 2049."

You can tell by watching "Blade Runner 2049" that Villeneuve has mad respect for the original film because he has taken that original film and delivered a proper sequel that does justice to this movie that so many love. They could've taken this franchise and updated it for modern audiences. They could've turned it into a giant action franchise or used this movie to set up a whole bunch of other sequels, but that's not what happened. Villeneuve has made a "Blade Runner" sequel that takes what "Blade Runner" set up and builds on it. While the first movie was set in 2019, this movie is set 30 years after that, in the year 2049, and feels like a natural progression. The technology from the first movie has expanded and progressed while the universe we're in is bigger, better and more beautiful than ever before. Like, seriously, if nothing else, this movie is worth seeing just for the visual effects and cinematography. And just like the original, the soundtrack is quite mesmerizing. The movie is nearly three hours long, but for me I was so caught up in this world that I was totally fine with the length of the film. Yeah, sure, it probably could've been 20 minutes shorter, but I never got bored or restless due to how beautiful and mesmerizing this movie is.

I don't know how much I want to give away about the story itself because I mostly avoided all the trailers. I didn't want to know anything about a sequel to a film that I hadn't yet seen. When I finally saw the first movie, I essentially went straight into this sequel without catching myself up on the trailers. But the basics of this plot center around Ryan Gosling. Because replica technology is advanced, they've seemingly figured out how to work with replicas as Ryan Gosling himself is a replica and a blade runner. And that's not something that's revealed at the end of the movie. That's known from the very beginning. Ryan Gosling's job as a blade runner is to retire some of the older models that were more dysfunctional and less obedient than himself. In the midst of this, he runs into a certain breakthrough that sets up a whole bunch of questions and eventually leads Gosling to Harrison Ford's character of Rick Deckard. But make no mistake, this is Ryan Gosling's movie. Not Harrison Ford's. But when Harrison Ford does turn up about halfway through the movie, he does an excellent job at picking up where he left off. He doesn't act like Harrison Ford or Han Solo. You see him on screen and you know he is Rick Deckard, which I find impressive.

The movie as a whole is truly a marvel to behold and honestly at least as good as the original, if not a few steps above. If you are among the crowd that believes that "Blade Runner" is a masterpiece, then you need to show up for this movie because it might be your favorite movie of the year, or even of the decade. It's being praised as such by many and for dang good reason. But when it comes to my personal opinion, I think the flaws of "2049" are the same as "Blade Runner." We've discussed the topic of artificial intelligence and technology so much in Hollywood that there's almost an over-saturation of the genre. Thus I don't necessarily think there's anything new or groundbreaking presented in this movie. Granted, the movie does a fantastic job and making you think there is. The visual effects, cinematography and score are so top-notch that they combine together to try to trick you into thinking you just watched the greatest movie ever made. I had to actually take a few days to figure out what this movie was actually about. When I did my best to push aside the technical marvel that this movie is and focus solely on what was presented in terms of story, characters and theme, it became a lot easier to pick this movie apart.

Yet for better or for worse, this is definitely a "Blade Runner" sequel. It's a slow-moving, sci-fi, mystery film that takes its time to set everything up so that things feel natural and unforced. If you thought the themes of technology vs. humanity, and the often gray area between the two were phenomenal and thought-provoking in the first movie, just wait until you see what themes this movie has to add to that. It takes that line and blurs it even more. But I don't know, I still think I've seen these themes done much better in other movies. The first half of this movie played out a lot like the movie "Her," the movie starring Joaquin Phoenix falling in love with the advanced version of Siri, voiced by Scarlett Johannson. But I think "Her" is more powerful and resonating than "Blade Runner 2049." In terms of the blurred line between humanity and artificial intelligence, the movie "Ex Machina" dove into that in a fantastically gripping fashion that will stick with me for a lot longer than "Blade Runner 2049" will with its various versions of the replicas. But yet I still have mad respect for this film that Denis Villeneuve has so carefully crafted and put together. It may not be my exact cup of tea, but I will recommend it to anyone who loved the original and I will give the movie a 9/10.