Blade Runner 2049 is directed by Denis Villenuve and Ridley Scott who directed the first film serves as executive producer here the story features K (Ryan Gosling) a new Blade Runner detective in 2049 who is assigned to track down a new replicant who may have gone off the grid this leads him to both Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) and Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) from the first film and just like that movie K will soon see things these people wouldn’t believe.
I hold Blade Runner from 1982 as one of my top 10 movies of all time for creating both an incredibly imaginative visual world one of the best in movies as well as great modern detective story with Deckard and one of the best villains in all of cinema in Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty whose search for life was equally compelling but in a world where 9 out of 10 sequels miss the mark could this one be the exception or be another one in a long line of failures.
Well it’s a bit of both as I am very mixed on this movie overall firstly I will start with the craftsmanship here consisting of Denis’s direction, Roger Deakins cinematography, Dennis Gassner’s production design and the visual effects work it is impeccably crafted and seeing it perfectly projected on a big cinema screen not once do you think the visuals are boring because there is such love and care and precision in every detail and every image on that basis alone this movie is worth the cinema ticket.
And also some of the performances here are quite good Gosling is fine even if he does a lot of staring in the film, Ford does the usual thing he’s been doing for a long while now which is play the grumpy old man, Robin Wright was quite good as the LAPD boss even if she has little screen time but Sylvia Hoeks was the standout for me as the right hand to Wallace with some fierce killing skills of her own.
However the central mystery at the heart of this film I found to be really weak and at times I went “What the Fuck” to myself in some scenes towards the end of the film now I won’t say too much more as I have no desire to give a lot away but I went to myself “Oh it’s that” in the early scenes and kept waiting for the film to catch up to that point and as great as the craftsmanship was I got a little bored after a while before Deckard’s arrival into the story helped to pick things up and pull them into focus.
And lastly Leto’s Wallace is just not that great a villain and Roy from the first film had a compelling narrative of his own in his search for more life which combined with Deckard’s detective investigation really helped to make that film more than just a great visual feast as their clash in the climax of Blade Runner 1 was all the more riveting because you were invested in both of their journey’s here Leto walks around stares up at the ceiling and he acts more like Dr Herbert West from Re Animator it really feels like at times that Leto is imitating Jeffery Combs from that film.
And also what Roy did was the give that first film it’s heart and it’s soul and when I think about this movie and how poor a villain Leto is again it leaves a very large hole that is very difficult to fill and as greatly crafted as 2049 is for me not having a dynamic villain or compelling mystery makes me feel very mixed on this movie.
And so that was Blade Runner 2049 a very mixed bag of a sequel with great craftsmanship but not having a great mystery or a dynamic villain, 2 and a half out of 5.
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