Blade Runner 2049 is, as you probably already know, the sequel to the 1982 late-to-the-party science fiction classic Blade Runner. Blade Runner is a good movie that has grown in pop culture estimation over the years but is essentially a slow-paced mood piece… a dreamy kind of future noir with a pedestrian gumshoe plot, themes of mortality and humanity, and a lot of ads for Atari and Pan-Am. This sequel is a lot of those things too while being far more accessible to a general audience. Unfortunately, it’s only two thirds a great movie and one third a good enough one.
The film takes place thirty years after the first and takes place on an Earth that’s even a bigger dirt-pile than it was before. More condensed, more crowded, dirtier, and more depressing. The old model replicants that were chased in the first film have been replaced with more docile models but the old school Blade Runners are still used to hunt the remaining original models.
Ryan Gosling plays one of these Blade Runners and he stumbles upon a Mystery from the Past (one of the few nods to the original film’s film noir styling). He investigates and it leads to deeper mysteries, events from the first film, and more themes of humanity, love, death, and other heavy, ponderous thoughts.
I’m being vague because the marketing campaign kept a lot of the plot and the twists and turns undercover and the film is much better for it. There are some really neat twists, turns, and double-twists… and one of the biggest surprises comes in the first ten minutes of the film. I’m surprised the studio didn’t ruin that (much less everything else) in the marketing campaign. I’m being vague again. Sorry.
The first two thirds of the film deals largely with world-building and intriguing mysteries. The Los Angeles of 2049, the state of the replicants, and of humanity are easily the best part of the film. It feels like a sequel to a movie that it knows it has to honor while picking up the pace a bit. Not that it feels like a modern, super-fast, hyper-edited action flick… it’s still a little languorous and the music is a mix of the dreamy Vangelis of the first film and the more bombastic (sometimes too bombastic) Hans Zimmer.
I liked those two-thirds because they were telling the film’s own story. Even when including those Secrets of the Past, the movie was telling its own story, set in its own updated world. I liked where the story was going and it was genuinely surprising me. And then the final act kicks in… and it’s not a bad final act, but my interest and the original feel of the film faded.
Since he’s in all the marketing, it’s fair to say that Harrison Ford is in the film. And he’s the film’s biggest problem (*gasp*). He’s back as his old Deckard character but really it’s just Harrison Ford walking into the movie and being Harrison Ford. Maybe he is making acting choices, maybe he’s just getting a paycheck, but he didn’t “feel” like Deckard. But that’s not the main problem – as soon as he walks into the movie, his story and his past and the events of the first film take over too much of the new film. It stops feeling like an original tale set in this world and more like the Blade Runner (1982) All-Star show.
But all of this didn’t ruin the film, it just brought it down from a great movie to a good movie. I can live with that. And there’s a lot of themes, ideas, dialog, and imagery that suggest there’s some good film and philosophical analysis that can be done with a second or third viewing of the film. In that it has any ideas at all proves there’s something of merit going on the film.
Not to mention, this late in the review, that the movie looks like a couple hundred million bucks. The director, cinematographer, sound mixers, etc. are all working with ALL the talent and ALL the money and have put together something that never once lets you down on a technical and artistic level. The movie FEELS solid. It looks amazing. The soundtrack is good and if you see it in the right theater, the sounds will kick you in the butt. When you see how much money and effort the studios can put into mindless, stupid shlock and then you look at this, it gives you hope.
And two additional notes. The movie earns an R rating with surprising violence, swearing, and nudity. Three things the first movie avoided and three things that surprised me for being in a big mainstream sci-fi flick. This isn’t a bad thing… they made a sci-fi film for actual adults.
Second note… this is a real sequel to the first movie so don’t see it if you haven’t seen the first flick. You might get lost real quick… plus it’s fun to spot the call-backs and occasional returning character. And if you haven’t seen Blade Runner in awhile, it might be a good idea to rewatch it.
So, there ya go. My take on a movie that you may either love or hate though if there’s any part of you that likes sci-fi or saw the first film, you really should see it. And, really, I liked the movie a lot… I just wish I could give it an unqualified thumbs up as one of the best movies of the year. Alas, it comes close.
Score: 85