Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Brandon O — 04 Jan 2018

Blade Runner 2049 is knit together immaculately, but what it's trying to explore and especially how it's going about it is not quite on par with the sensory splendor. The film is more Sicario than Arrival -- cold to the touch, less stirring, but both strong in their own ways.

Gosling gives a hardened and measured performance, and Ford goes even stronger with a grizzled vulnerability and emotional nuance. Impeccable production and sound design alongside a complementary score provide such an immersive sense of time and place. This vision is more retrofuturistic than the original's "future-filth", and Deakins continues his maddeningly remarkable streak of cinematography whilst capturing that vision.

This is French-Canadian auteur, Denis Villeneuve's, second film within this past year, and one has to hope for continued consistent releases from this engrossing and virtuosic filmmaker.