Finally got to see the sequel to one of cinema’s thought provoking scifi flicks, Blade Runner. Here’s thefanboyseo.com’s Blade Runner 2049 review.

First up, the basics. The film is directed by Dennis Villanueve and stars Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Ana Del Armas and more. The film is distributed locally by Columbia Pictures.

Watch the trailer(s) below to get a better grip and to really enjoy this Blade Runner 2049 review.

Being Human

One of the beautiful themes they used for Blade Runner and for it’s direct sequel Blade Runner 2049 is the question of humanity. The film touches on that with immense detail and a slow pace to really get the viewers attention. Questions like “are replicants humans?” or “do replicants have souls?” was already a great theme in the 80’s original. The only bummer was that at the end they throw a curveball by introducing the possibility of Rick Deckard as a replicant himself. For Blade Runner 2049, they do away with that because we already know that Ryan Gosling’s “K” or “Joe” IS a replicant… who hunts other replicants for the LAPD .K’s journey from being a replicant to something more than that gets front and center throughout the movie.

Replicant or Replican?

Two viewings and its still clear that Ridley Scott, Dennis Villanueve and even Harrison Ford is not keen on answering whether or not Rick Deckard was a replicant or a human. I loved that notion hanging around and while getting a straight answer from the film could have made it more meaningful, I understand production’s need to continue leaving that dangling.

Slow Burn

One of the most common things I heard after seeing the movie was how slow it was. It was intentionally slow to make a bigger impact. They succeeded in that but at the same time, there were clearly some moments where they fucked it up. There were some moments that had little to no pay off. So why dwell with those in the first place? I think it was more a creative statement.

Batista Un-Bomb

It sucks that they only had a few precious moments for Dave Bautista who plays replicant Sapper Morton here. Yeah it sucks but those moments were tense and dramatic. Who’d have thought that Fil-Greek wrestler can deliver such angst and desperation in so little time. Also, if you want to find out how K caught up with Morton, you gotta watch this short film:

Angelic Casting

In my eyes and for this Blade Runner 2049 review, I think Jared Leto once again shines as the blind but trecherous Niander Wallace, the new owner and manufacturer of the replicants that help run this society. There’s also Ana del Armas who plays K’s “girlfriend” Joi and Sylvia Hoeks as Luv, who also acts as the main villain for this film. Robin Wright (Antiope in Wonder Woman) plays K’s boss Lt. Joshi. Even Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) makes an appearance here.

They Weren’t Wrong

People who came to the theater expecting all sorts of actions and explosions may be sorely disappointed first because the film wasn’t really designed and written to be a full on action movie. Think of Blade Runner 2049 as a detective story set in a post-apocalyptic world and then we’ll definitely be on the same page. In hindsight, it was never really marketed as an action movie; so quite yammering and appreciate the beauty of this film.

Beautiful Disaster

For a post-apocalyptic world filled with replicants and dubious humans, Blade Runner 2049 looked BEAUTIFUL. Whether its the rainy and bleek Los Angeles skies and streets to red tinged Las Vegas to the wasteland pits of San Diego, everything in this Villanueve film look great. Even interior shots like K’s apartment or Deckard’s “home” or even Wallace’s sprawling office looks great. This makes all the scenes as much part of the story as the characters delivering lines.

Blade Runner 2049 Review Verdict

9/10

Blade Runner 2049 is a visual masterpiece. It’s worth your money and while it may be intentionally slow, I can honestly say that its a thinking man’s science fiction flick. Ridley Scott may have built the world but Dennis Villanueve breathe new life to this world. Sadly, it looks like it also suffers from sequelitis. They intentionally made the movie end in such a way that it never opens any form of closure, letting threads dangle for potential movies. Did it do a good job of closing in K’s story plot? Yes. Did it close of Deckard’s story? It felt forced to be honest. Still a great movie.

Blade Runner 2049 is now showing.