Blade Runner 2049

SPOILERS!!! STAY AWAY IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN YET!!

It's been a week since I saw Blade Runner 2049 and it's proving to be a tricky one to chew over. Initially, I was very impressed by its grandeur and ambition. Then I was slightly numbed by the languid pacing. Finally, I found myself appreciating the links between this and Ridley Scott's original masterpiece from 1982 (or later depending on which cut suits). All this while adjusting my ginger cheeks in the cinema. 2 hours and 45 minutes of adjusting. In the preceding seven days, my brain has been catching snatches of film and replaying it to me - of both films. And I think this is one of the key points. Many sequels of well-known films pale in comparison to their forebears (lets say Crystal Skull and Prometheus as examples - though I didn't hate the latter) but 2049 has done something that these others didn't achieve. It's successfully fused the DNA of its predecessor into its structure and done so with style and candour. But only bringing back cast (Ford, Olmos, etc) and crew (Hampton Fancher writes again) isn't it. The atmosphere is eerily similar and that's the key reason I love the original so much - atmosphere. This page shows the similarities well.

The choice of Denis Villeneuve as director was inspired, as he has the confidence to work with all the pressure of slotting his film into this canon. His previous films show he has a recognisable style and he clearly wasn't brought onboard just to tell the actors where to stand. Speaking of actors, here's where I still haven't made up my mind. Harrison Ford is superb in his minimal screen time but I'm not sure about Ryan Gosling. He doesn't have the charisma of Ford, OK given, yet he's fine when paired up with him. But his walk! His fucking walk! I understand you're being careful and I know you're a replicant but just move a bit quicker please. Honestly, this could have cut, I reckon, 5 to 10 minutes off the running time. And is he acting all bland due to his replicant nature or is he just bland? I'm prepared to give him some slack (he was pretty good in The Nice Guys). The rest of the cast is really good, though the main women characters seem to have got the dirty end of a shitty stick. They're either powerful and ultimately beaten (Wright, Hoeks) or weak and ultimately beaten (de Armas). Here's a link to a good piece from the Guardian on that.

The score by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch was atonal and loud but only irritating some of the time. Cinematographer Roger Deakins has surpassed himself (even better than his work on Barton Fink?) and the production design of Dennis Gassner is brilliant. The story itself centres on a chase with some more profound ideas hovering around it, like what it means to be human and the dangers of meddling with class structures; as Robin Wright's police chief says, "Tell either side there's no wall, you bought a war."

One final thought - I wonder if anyone involved has read any of Paolo Bacigalupi's stuff. I saw some hints of 'The Wind-Up Girl' (this book could make a great film), notably the character of Joi and the massive barrier keeping out the ocean.


See also:

Of course, Blade Runner but also the three shorts that fill in the gaps between that and 2049. These are Blackout 2022, Nexus Dawn 2036 and Nowhere to Run 2048.

Listen to "Blade Runner 2049" on Spreaker.