Blade Runner 2049
Director Ridley Scott (“Alien”,
“Prometheus”, “Black Hawk Down” & “The Martian”) who’s 1982 film called “Blade
Runner” became a cult classic, now has his initial story of a dark and cold
future revisited with the return of the highly anticipated sequel titled “Blade
Runner 2049” with Director Denis Villeneuve formerly of “Sicario”, “Arrival”
and “Incendies” (a great film if you have not seen it) taking over the
directing duties.
BACKGROUND:
“Blade
Runner” of 1982 takes place in Los Angeles in November 2019, where we find ex-police
officer named Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who’s previously job was that of a “Replicant Hunter” aka synthetic lifeforms’
who in fact look like real human beings. But when it is revealed from his former
Boss that four “Replicants” have committed a bloody mutiny on the “Off World”
colony Deckard is forcibly called out of retirement to track down those
murderous android synthetics and eliminate them who have apparently returned to
Earth to avoid being retired or to be direct euthanized.
Before starting the job,
Deckard goes to a company called the Tyrell Corporation where he meets someone
named Rachel (Sean Young) who is in fact a Replicant girl. She is an
experimental ‘”Replicant” who believes herself to be human mostly because Rachael
has been given false memories to provide an "emotional cushion" from
being easily detected.
Events are then set into
motion that pit Deckard's search for the “Replicants” against their search for the
Tyrell Corporation to extend their lives. Compounding matters further we find Deckard
becoming emotionally conflicted by what he is charged to do when he falls in love
with Rachel. Confronted with his dilemma Deckard tries to find a path to going
away with her with also an ending leaving open the possibility that Deckard also
might not be human also.
Fast
forward 30 years later to “Blade Runner 2049” where we find Officer
K (Ryan Gosling) who is a bit of a mystery early on as to whether he is human
or not. What we do know is he is called LAPD Officer KB36-3.7, aka K, officially
a “Blade Runner” who tracks down and “retires,” aka kills, older model “Replicants”
that have gone off the grid. But in his pursuit of “Replicants” Officer K unearths
a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society
into total chaos. A secret so altering that if revealed could change humanity’s
place on earth forever. With this discovery Officer K (also referred to at
times as “Joe”) goes off on a personal quest to find a former Blade Runner
named Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who's been missing or hiding for 30 years
to get some answers.
REVIEW: DAZZLING, AN UNFLINCHING EVENT ON YOUR SENSES. “Blade Runner 2049” retains the full
measure of the atmospherics of its original, but what jumps out at you from the
first second of the film’s 2:44 minute running time is the complete suspension
of big city reality as you know it or will ever imagine. This Los Angeles of 2049
is an endless vista wasteland conjured up out of the pure brilliance of
Director Villeneuve as something completely original, imaginative and well beyond
anything I have ever seen in a film. Every frame is a delicious experience of haunting
aerial scenes of a cityscape below that is a modern hybrid of pure technology
and flesh morphed into a dystopian paradox. A paradox of gleam and debris, grittiness
and modern and decrepit and high-tech. At times it has a painfully old look
about it and yet has moments of a wonderful nostalgia glow.
When closely examined from the
ground “Blade Runner 2049” environment is a congested mingling of humans and
artificiality all seamlessly conjoined together. Every facet of daily life looks
and feels unpleasant with its overly narrow and overly broad streets, endless nonstop
clusters of degrading concrete and steel as well as an omnipresent mist of gray
and brown always lurking about as if clinging to every structure and people
like some floating glue. This city is so tightly configured together it appears
that its design had the idea of real humans living there more of an thought as
to it ever making it someplace comfortably or habitable to live. LA is not a
city, it’s a Rubix's cube of humanity tightly compressed by artificiality collectively
trying to survive in an endless sea of minimalist and mega environmental
strangeness.
As casting goes Ryan Gosling's
as Agent K is impeccable cast as he creates the perfect balance of coldness and
sympathy all the while keeping a poker face stare of being either human or not.
Either way he is a soulless man with an occasional grin that showcases appropriately
the required coolness and masculinity to survive in this futuristic dog eat dog
world.
Jared Leto, known for his
method acting style, plays a mysterious blind industrialist named Niander
Wallace and while I consider Leto a fine actor I thought his “method”
interpretation of his character was a little too cryptic and overall just being
strange for strangeness sake leaving me at times confused about who he was and
what his dialogue was trying to convey. I would have preferred Director
Villeneuve’s originally casting choice in famed rocker David Bowie who unfortunately
passed before film began. Bowie would have in my opinion brought a bit more
diabolical soulfulness and diabolical warmth that Leto’s effort seem to severely
lack. However from a technical perspective I was very impressed how Leto’s blind
Wallace was given a totally imaginative way of letting him see who and what was
in front of him; it just blew me away.
Harrison Ford to my surprise
has very little screen time in the film. Still he manages to deliver some solid
minutes as the recluse Rick Deckard tortured by decisions in his past that will
have you questioning again is he human or not. But more importantly to this
character and the film’s overall story plot, we are left to wonder why has he
been hiding all these many years?
The musical score by Oscar Winner
Hans Zimmer is brilliant as it is an exercise in raw pounding spine tingling sensation
effectiveness. His score created memorable mood atmospherics of scenes from the
air as well as on the ground evoking a real sense of ominous emotions and ominous
dread. Zimmer in my opinion does Oscar worthy consideration work here that both
massively improves on the original 1982 film’s score and at the same time pays respectful
homage to the original musical work.
Overall while not every moment
in the film is always coherent nor is every subplot offered (and there are many
subplots) will make compete sense at every turn, “Blade Runner 2049” still
works fabulously as a pure fictional story and is in my estimation is a marvel
in movie making. It also asks a profound question that we can see without own
eyes right now today with the ever advancements, enhancement and dependence upon
self-thinking and self-aware technology in our own time ……..”What is life?”
If you choose to see this,
please, please, please don’t wait to rent this. The CGI is brilliant and will
leave an indelible imprint in your mind. To rent this would be the equivalent
of waiting to view and experience a one time joyful family event by way of video animation on a smartphone. And just as many of you who flocked
to see the Best Picture Oscar nominated film "Gravity", this “Blade
Runner 2049” also can only be experienced in the format of the theater where
you can gain the full measure of the scale, the scope, the intricacy, the
detail and the exquisite grandeur of a totally reimagining of desolation. Summarily a futuristic place completely consumed with unimaginable technology as well dust,
pollution, oversized artifacts, hovering shades of brown-ish gray mist and
piles of rust and decaying trash as far and wide as the city itself.
“Blade Runner 2049” is one of
the better films you will see for 2017.
4 Stars
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