Better late than never, I suppose!
In Blade Runner: 2049, K (Ryan Gosling) is a new model Replicant working as a Blade Runner for the LAPD in the year 2049. His job (like all Blade Runners) is to hunt down and "retire" (aka exterminate) all the old model Replicants. During a routine mission, he stumbles across a long-buried secret that may just hold the potential to turn the world as they know it upside down and spark a revolution or all-out war.
Blade Runner: 2049 is the sequel to Ridley Scott's magnum opus about humanity and what it means to be human. It's long but never boring. 2049 continues themes found in Blade Runner, but is more-so interested in expanding and enriching that film's universe than it is in ruminating on or exploring said themes. Blade Runner also feels and looks more like a Noir than 2049 does. 2049 is more of a detective mystery than anything else, and it's more plot and character based.
Ryan Gosling looks impressive and cool as always no matter what he is wearing. He puts on a subtle, nuanced and beautiful performance as K. In the world of 2049, society looks down upon and spits on all Replicants, so K doesn't exactly live a peachy life. He is married to/dating a drop dead gorgeous and sweet hologram named Joi (Ana de Armas). She is fiercely devoted to K and loves him deeply, sticking by his side no matter what and even assisting him in his detective work. Ana de Armas manages to make Joi and her relationship with K two of the strongest and most memorable things about this film, imbuing the character with a deep sadness as she yearns to be flesh-and-blood.
Sylvia Hoeks is all too hate-able as the evil Replicant Luv, who works as assistant to Jared Leto's Niander Wallace (who bought out The Tyrell Corporation and is making new, better, improved and more obedient Replicants. The old model Replicants are still being hunted down due to their tempers and unreliability). I found Jared Leto to be pretty annoying (despite one fantastic scene he shares with Harrison Ford). Wallace is a pompous, arrogant man with a serious God complex. Luckily, Leto isn't in the film much and Hoeks' Luv acts as main antagonist (which is better since she is definitely a stronger and more memorable presence).
Harrison Ford returns to play Rick Deckard, and puts on one hell of an emotional and affecting performance. I love how the film doesn't give us any answers about Deckard, instead allowing audiences to keep whatever conclusion they came to at the end of the first film. Ford doesn't appear until an hour and forty-six minutes into the film. That said, he still appears on most of the last hour of the film. Carla Juri's performance as Dr. Ana Stelline (who is in charge of creating the memories that are implanted into the Replicants) also stuck with me despite her small amount of screen time.
The cinematography (by Roger Deakins) in 2049 is phenomenal and memorable, too bad I can't say the same about the score. I found the score (by Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer) to be ill-fitting most of the time, only seldomly recapturing the magic of the first film's masterful and other-worldly compositions. As for the action scenes...they were fantastic, though Blade Runner: 2049 isn't as focused on action as you might think it would be. I also definitely loved all the future tech sampled in 2049, especially the holograms of long-dead singers. I want to play with this tech like, now! The design of the future world 2049 is set in is simply mesmerizing and impressive. It feels like a logical leap forward considering what we saw in the first Blade Runner (Congrats to production designer Dennis Gassner and the whole SFX and VFX team!)
I definitely loved Blade Runner: 2049, though it's not quite as great as Blade Runner was. It's similar to Blade Runner, but quite different as well. Blade Runner: 2049 is a superb, emotional, touching, and powerful film that easily ranks in as one of the best of 2017. It also just so happens to be one of the best sequels out there (It feels like a natural and organic sequel to Blade Runner)!
4.5 STARS
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