Movie Review – Blade Runner 2049

It has been over 30 years since Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was released. It has since become a sci-fi and cinematic staple in modern pop culture. The film was a visual spectacle on the big screen, blanketed with Vangelis’ New-age score, and depicting a dystopian and futuristic tale adapted from a Philip K. Dick novel. In the story, androids called Replicants were manufactured to mimic human characteristics and assume their responsibilities. Following a mass of units malfunctioning, production halted and the replicants were decommissioned. A number of surviving replicants went into hiding. Harrison Ford plays Deckard, an officer hired to track and eliminate the remaining replicants. While hunting them down, he develops feelings for one of them, named Rachael (played by Sean Young). Their relationship complicates but does not distract Deckard from doing his job.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) takes place over 30 years later. The original line of replicants are long gone, a data-destroying blackout has wiped out most of their digital records, and a man named Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) has re-booted a new line of legalized replicants. Ryan Gosling plays Detective K, who is hired to track and eliminate any obsolete model replicants. K encounters Sapper Morton, a worm farmer played by Dave Bautista, who shares a message with K that triggers a momentary memory spike. Robin Wright plays K’s acerbic supervisor, Lieutenant Joshi, who keeps K in line. Ana de Armas plays Joi, a nurturing, helpful, and supportive holographic companion for K. Mackenzie Davis plays Mariette, whose organic human form complements Joi’s holographic one. Sylvia Hoeks plays Luv, K’s instant adversary, who is determined with preserving Wallace’s vision and eliminating anyone who interferes.

Despite the nearly 3 hours in length, Blade Runner 2049 presents three acts of solid storytelling, furthering the mythos, and creating new questions while answering the old. Every scene is picturesque, every emotion is felt, and every revelation is…well, revealing. Besides continuing the story the first film began, the sequel expands on the possibility of whether an android can dream, and tackles the topic of whether experiencing memories is solely a human trait. As the first film maintained mystery as to who was human and who was replicant, this film does the same with shrouding its characters’ identities in mystery.

The film score was written by Benjamin Wallfisch & Hans Zimmer, which is a re-working and expansion on Vangelis’ score from the first film.

There are valid reasons why the studio wished to keep a lid on this film. To say this sequel is remarkable would be to assume this is more of a visceral experience or cerebral awakening than a simple motion picture. That is what this is. Experience this remarkable motion picture.