Blade Runner 2049 - This Week At The Movies

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Set 30 years after the events of the original film, officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that could plunge what's left of earth’s fragile society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and uncover the intentions of all-powerful industrialist Niander Wallace (Jared Leto).

Pros:

• Stop worrying: the long-awaited sequel to one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time is good. Very, very good. Superb, in fact. Part of what makes it so good is that everything is a spoiler, the story twisting and turning from the very first scene. In fact, it's nigh-on impossible to talk about Blade Runner 2049 without spoiling it somehow, so wish me luck for the rest of this review. Many long films belie a plot that’s not worth telling at such length, but Blade Runner 2049 is not one of those films. Its runtime is close to three hours (163 minutes) but not a moment feels wasted. The plot is labyrinthine, and its double-guessing intricacy is one of its many excellent qualities: this is a profound, rich, slow movie. There's so much depth, so much detail, so much story, but it never feels congested. Warning: watching this movie, you will actually think. Now you know.
• With Roger Deakins (Skyfall, True Grit, The Big Lebowski) as its director of photography, Blade Runner 2049 was never going to look bad, but the award-winning (but not Oscar-winning, bizarrely) cinematographer has truly outdone himself this time around, and the results are stunning. The trailer gives away a few of the key moments, but whether it’s desert, cityscapes, rain, sun, snow… it’s all gorgeous, atmospheric, incredible. Deakins has helped director Denis Villeneuve make a film that is both a Villeneuve movie (Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival) and a Blade Runner movie. Both deserve so much praise for performing a miracle: creating a sequel a modern classic that adds to and reinvigorates the original.
• Without giving too much away, Ryan Gosling has such a tough job to do and he is outstanding, with bursts of anger, sadness and wonder that will stay with you. Ford, likewise, delivers one of the best performances of his career. But I really can’t say any more.

Cons:

• One of my quibbles is that I didn't love Jared Leto’s performance. Or, rather, his character. The first scene we meet his bionic beardy bad guy, he talks more than any other character would dream of in a Blade Runner movie, pontificating as he lays out his plan (of a sort), and it just feels… out of place. It’s not that he’s bad, it’s that his grand, involved stateliness doesn’t feel quite right with the rest of the film.
• Vangelis’ music in the first film is a work of art. Here, it feels as if Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score here seeks mainly to ape it, though it has its moments, with a big, bassy, almost tribal feel to some moments, with a loud droney braaaaaaaahm bouncing around the cinema. It’s not that it’s bad at all, it’s that it’s in the shadow of something incredible. There’s also the drama around Villeneuve’s regular musical collaborator, Jóhann Jóhannsson, being removed from the production late in the day, but not much is known about that and it’s probably best if I didn’t bring it up. Ah well, too late now.
• There is another thing, but I genuinely can’t explain it without giving things away. A cop out? For sure.

Three word review: Beautiful, intricate, incredible.

Blade Runner 2049 is in cinemas 6th October 2017.