Saturday, May 19, 2018

Two Paragraph Review: Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

The original Blade Runner movie is one of my favourite cinematic works of art. Ever since I was a teenager I really enjoyed Ridley Scott vision over distance and cold future. At the same time, Denis Villeneuve is one of my favorites new directors, especially when it comes o science fiction. Two years ago I was completely blown away with The Arrival, so naturally my expectations were high for Blade Runner 2049. Now, after seeing it, I have a hard time putting my finger on it.

The movie is visually stunning and it provides an engaging experience in that sense. However at the same time narratively, it's slightly all over the place. While it's easy to connect with Joe, who is basically trying to figure out what’s happening (like the audience) the rest of the characters fall flat. These include Decker who is who is played by an ever older and less interesting Harrison Ford. All of them are distant but what is worse, they end up feeling irrelevant. The same is true for the plot, which simply does not hold up to the immense visual grandeur of the movie. Maybe Blade Runner 2049 will age better just like the original, but for now, the two are not on the same playing field.