Blade Runner 2049 Review

Blade Runner 2049 is the long awaited sequel to the original Blade Runner that came out in 1982. The movie follows K (Ryan Gosling), a young blade runner, who is ordered to solve a mystery that forces, retired blade runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) to come out of hiding.

Firstly, what I’d like to say is that this movie breaks every trope that usually comes with these kinds of reboots. It stands as a natural progression for the original Blade Runner story and isn’t focused on trying to hastily build up a sci-fi action franchise that’ll spawn 50 more sequels losing all philosophical elements in the process (*cough* Terminator). The story here is one that makes sense and is relevant to the open ended events of the last movie. Honestly, I expected 2049 to have a rehashed plot from the first film and have Harrison Ford team up with Gosling from the start to go on a mindless, action packed, CGI heavy, sci-fi romp. I am happy to say this was not the case and that Blade Runner 2049 was a dramatic, character driven, thought provoking experience that I relished every minute of.

The most obvious thing I have to mention is the cinematography. This movie was a feast for the eyes with every shot. The color grading was especially on point here and made every environment K traveled to feel distinct (Marvel should learn from this, but then again looks like they are with Thor 3). It really did a great job of bringing the world to life and I felt like I was sucked into it the whole time. Even the poster is pretty damn nice. The different future technology that they would show off in the city made it feel even more real and was cool to see since the original wasn’t capable of having too much of those visual effects.

The plot was centered around a detective story that intrigued me all the way through. I’m lightly talking about the main story because this movie has so many reveals that, surprisingly, even the trailers didn’t show; so I would recommend you don’t look up anything about the plot’s specifics or even about the characters before watching. It was fascinating to gradually discover each piece of the puzzle with Gosling and to see how each discovery affected him emotionally. This worked because Gosling’s K is very well developed throughout the film and getting a look into his personal life, made him much easier to emotionally attatch to. I also thought it was a great idea to reintroduce Deckard much later in the film in order to give K’s character time to be fleshed out, so that we, fans of the original, aren’t initially forced into caring for Ford’s character more than the new ones (Star Wars 7 did the same thing and it worked just as well there).

The few action scenes were also well shot and choreographed. However, I just want to say, I liked how the action was only used when necessary for the story. There is never a long drawn out chase or fight scene without any dialogue just for the sake of making the film seem more exciting or to show off its visuals. It’s smarter than that and keeps the action feeling real and purposeful.

I don’t really have that much bad to say about 2049. I would say its pacing is probably its biggest flaw. I think that its story didn’t need all 2 hours and 45 minutes to be told. This is mainly because some revelations weren’t as jaw dropping as the film maybe thought they were, especially when they take such a long time to be revealed. Some people might find this movie boring because of that, which I can understand. You could say the pieces of K's puzzle are put together one at a time. There are also some parts where certain questions are answered leading to the movie showing earlier scenes to connect the dots for you on what was implied. I just think that film makers should expect more from their audiences these days because those types of reminders seemed unnecessary to me.

Otherwise, there were some loose ends that never really got resolved. One scene in particular really got me hyped for what could happen by the end of the movie but nothing ever came of it. The ending was also left pretty open but I guess that’s what the original did so I’m fine with people interpreting what they want from it.

Overall, I would say please go out and watch Blade Runner 2049, it is one of the best films of the year and I would say probably better than the original. Also props to the director, Denis Villeneuve. He is one of the great filmmakers of our time and just keeps throwing out greatness. 2049 is no exception.

The Verdict: 8.5