blade runner 2049 main Movie Review: Blade Runner 2049

Movie Review: Blade Runner 2049

Folks, it’s the movie you’ve been waiting for. It’s been hyped up by critics, it’s trading on the name of a 1980s cyberpunk masterpiece that’s been copied countless times since in film and anime, and it’s got perhaps the biggest star in Hollywood who can accurately portray a stoic replicant devoid of outward emotion — Ryan Gosling.

How is it? I mean… it’s good. It’s hard for me to make up my mind about this movie. It’s incredibly artful, interesting, full of visual novelty and delivers on recreating the unforgettable world of Blade Runner. On the other hand, it’s overly long, feels a little self-indulgent, and lacks some of the cerebral, thought provoking spark of the original.

blade runner 2049 trailer Movie Review: Blade Runner 2049

The keyword for this movie is interesting. The imagery is interesting, Wallace (Jared Leto’s character) is interesting, the plot is interesting. Interesting carries with it a certain amount of enjoyment inherently, but it’s not viscerally enjoyable in the same way, say, a comedy is, or a romance. It’s not that cerebral, thinking about it days later kind of interesting, either. There’s a certain amount of this movie that will get you thinking on a philosophical level, but not to the same degree as the first film — perhaps because a lot of what may have been covered here about the humanity of replicants was already explored in the original.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the movie, to me, was K’s (Ryan Gosling) relationship with an AI installed in his home. It explored the futuristic notion of machines replacing women for male companionship, set up a sort of perfect couple between two different man-made lifeforms and, toward the end twisted into a conduit for making subtle points about K’s character. Additionally, it was just plain a pleasure to watch on screen. The actress who played Joi (Ana de Arnas) was stunning, and her relationship with K was the most honest, relatable thing in the film. I really enjoyed it.

blade runner 2049 ryan gosling new image noscale Movie Review: Blade Runner 2049
D’awww

Weirdly, even though this movie was 3 hours long and it definitely felt long, I can’t imagine what they could have cut out. Sure, there were some dramatically long, tension building shots, but those all felt like they needed to be there. Strangely, I think it would have felt less long if they added a few more action scenes toward the middle. The middle part of the movie where K is investigating the mystery, for a time, just plain feels slow.

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Me, during the middle part of the movie

When there was an action scene, it tended to be a badass display of how advanced replicants are. There’s one scene in the movie where K gets mobbed by a bunch of… rabble, I guess you might say, and he shows off his deadeye AI style aiming and speed and super strength. Weirdly, the climactic fight between two characters who were established badasses seemed to forget we had seen these same two characters perform feats of incredible strength and skill earlier in the movie.

Ryan Gosling does a great job. I really, really wanted more of Dave Bautista, his character seemed interesting and his introduction left me wanting more. Harrison Ford does a great job as well, although for some reason his homeless super-bum costume made me feel like he wasn’t doing a good job. It took me a second to realize that it wasn’t his acting that made me feel that way, more that everyone else was dressed awesome and he looked like he just rolled out of bed and showed up. Not really his fault.

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“My contract said I had to be here at 4, it didn’t say anything about a costume. Just turn the cameras on, kid”

The ending was unsatisfying to me personally. I’m not going to spoil it, but to me it felt like one of those endings that’s supposed to leave you thinking, but it really didn’t. The story was relatively straightforward. There was a little bit to contemplate about K’s motivations and humanity, but the ending screamed 80s trope sci-fi thought provoking ending, to which my natural response was “Eh, I guess.”

When it really comes down to it, not to denigrate any other part of the movie, but the relationship between K and Joi is what I’m going to remember most. I didn’t expect anything like that coming into the movie and I probably wouldn’t enjoy a movie based solely on that concept (i.e. Her), but I thought it was supremely charming and, to me, was really the emotional spine of the whole film.

68893 ppl Movie Review: Blade Runner 2049
Also, this actress is gorgeous. Marry me

So was it a masterpiece? Was it pretentious? I’m really conflicted.  Gut reaction, I thought it was really great, but realistically, I will probably never watch it again.  Intellectually, I wish Hollywood made more movies like this, but viscerally it was 3 hours and it felt like 3 hours. It was visually stunning and stylish as hell from top to bottom. The concept and portrayal of the world of Blade Runner itself is incredible. Overall, I liked it a lot. It’s maybe a tad overhyped, but it’s very good.  B+/A-.

Author

  • Ryan Night

    Ryan Night is an ex-game industry producer with over a decade of experience writing guides for RPGs. Previously an early contributor at gamefaqs.com, Ryan has been serving the RPG community with video game guides since 2001. As the owner of Bright Rock Media, Ryan has written over 600 guides for RPGs of all kinds, from Final Fantasy Tactics to Tales of Arise.

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