Review: Blade Runner 2049

Set in L.A. 2049, Ryan Gosling is K, a blade runner and Replicant tasked by Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright) with tracking down and ‘retiring’ other, older model Replicants. On his latest mission, K and his colleagues are startled to discover something previously believed to be an impossibility: A deceased female Replicant who had apparently given birth! It turns out that the female Replicant was none other than Rachael (played in the 1982 original by Sean Young), so K goes in search of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). He’s also plagued by doubts of his own identity. Meanwhile Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), whose company is the successor to the Tyrell Corporation is also fascinated by this supposed miracle birth and sends a goon named Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) to take care of the situation. Ana de Armas is Joi, K’s female hologram companion, Edward James Olmos appears as an aged Gaff, while Mackenzie Davis and Dave Bautista are Replicants.

If you’ve read enough of my reviews, you probably already know I’m not really the right guy for this 2017 Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners”, “Sicario”, “Arrival”) sci-fi flick. I’ve seen all three major cuts of the original “Blade Runner”, and I don’t like any of them (“The Final Cut” is the best of the three, for what little it’s worth). Yeah, it looks and sounds good, and yeah Rutger Hauer and some of the other supporting cast were terrific. However, I think with a dour Harrison Ford, a useless Sean Young, and plodding direction from Ridley Scott the film is dull and pretty empty. There’s no heart or warmth to it, even recognising that it’s a film about synthetic humans. Anyway, I’ve watched this sequel at any rate and while it’s still not worth a recommendation, I can at least attest that director Villeneuve has made a far less boring film from the same basic story elements. I didn’t like it, but there’s a little more warm blood in this one.

Given I criticise the original for having very stiff and cold-blooded leads, you’d probably think Ryan Gosling wouldn’t do much for me in the lead role here. He’s not the liveliest actor around, but I can see why he was cast in this, and because we know from fairly on who and what he is, it’s much easier to accept him being a little remote. Gosling definitely plays synthetic well (and he’s actually less wooden than Harrison Ford in the original), so it was apt casting, and while not a plot ‘twist’ in the conventional sense, certainly an interesting idea nonetheless from screenwriters Hampton Fancher (the original “Blade Runner”) and Michael Green (“Green Lantern”, “Logan”). Although the director claims the film is inspired by both the original and final cuts of “Blade Runner”, it starts us off with the knowledge that ‘Blade Runners’ are Replicants, which definitely plays more into one cut of the 1982 film than the other. The pregnancy angle, however does seem to play into the other cut, though.

The film looks absolutely amazing, and so it’s no surprise to me that Roger Deakins (“Nineteen Eighty-Four”, “Barton Fink”, “Jarhead”, “Prisoners”) won the Oscar for his cinematography here. A very hazy look, it’s actually quite different to the look of the original, but without looking wrong for the material. Rather than the futuristic/post-modern Tokyo billboard/skyscraper look of the original, this one has a more post-apocalyptic/industrial look to it. It makes sense for a story set long after the events of the first film, but without seeming to belong to something completely different (The neon signs are still present, just shrouded in fog). It looks so damn good, possibly even more impressive than the first film, if I can be so bold. I’ve already said I don’t like the first film, so I guess it’s too late now. I do have to point out the irritatingly small subtitles design, though. It’s appalling. On the plus side, the music score by Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King”, “Inception”) and Benjamin Wallfisch (“A Cure for Wellness”) that doesn’t rip-off the Vangelis score in the original.

A memorable opening scene allows Dave Bautista to not only punch the shit out of Ryan Gosling, but do some genuinely solid acting as well. It’s a shame it’s just a cameo. Robin Wright might at first seem an odd choice to play essentially this film’s version of the M. Emmet Walsh character in the original. However, it’s interesting casting that proves to be her best big-screen work since 1994’s “Forrest Gump”. Ana de Armas is also effectively cast as another non-human, and Carla Juri plays an intriguing character living her life confined inside sealed glass walls. On the downside, Edward James Olmos’ reprisal of his 1982 character proves a pretty unnecessary cameo. Also, not having the contact lenses in this time was a poor choice in my view. The coolest-looking character from the first film, instead he looks more like Col. Sanders this time and decidedly uncool. The contact lenses this time get worn by Jared Leto, who is playing kind of a blend of Roy Batty and Eldon Tyrell from the first film. I thought Leto’s Joker was one of the better things about the awful “Suicide Squad”, but he’s pretty uninteresting here and underused. Both the performance and length of screen time are a big frigging deal given the importance of his character to the plot. Given more screen time but to the film’s detriment, is a wooden Sylvia Hoeks, whilst Mackenzie Davis is, like Leto, given far too little screen time. We get a couple of call-backs to the original, including a damn good CGI cameo of a character from the first film, and one blue-hued shot of Gosling that unquestionably recalls a similar moment from the first film.

A pretty sizeable improvement over the overrated first film, I’m still not a fan of this. It’s far too long yet the villain is barely in it. I was never bored, so that’s one thing it has over the original, as well as some solid performances. Fans of the first film will likely enjoy this. It certainly looks and sounds terrific, but did it have to be so damn long?

Rating: C+