Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Nickolas P — 07 Oct 2017

Blade Runner is one of my all-time favourite movies. I've loved it since my first viewing and I had very high hopes for 2049 and the movie delivered on every level. The plot was kept a secret from every single trailer and even the reviewers were asked not to reveal anything about the plot.

But, I do plan on talking about the movie in detail, so I will put a SPOILER alert right here at the start. Only read further if you've watched the movie. Here we go. The plot revolves around a blade runner who goes by the name K.

He's a new "breed" of replicants which have a normal life-span and his job is to hunt down older versions of replicants and "retire" them. In the beginning we see him do just that with Sapper.

Sapper was introduced back in 2036: Nexus Dawn, a short movie released before 2049. He's an old version of a replicant, he even fought on Calantha, and must therefore be retired, killed. Upon investigating around his house, K finds a buried locker.

In the locker, there are bones of a replicant who gave birth. A lot of people thought this movie was going to focus on Deckard, but the real focus of the movie is actually his child. The remains found in the locker are actually that of Rachel, from the original Blade Runner.

This sets off K on a dangerous and important investigation. Since the first movie never actually revealed Deckard as a replicant, I was a bit afraid this sequel was going to tell us if he is or isn't one, which would ruin the 35 year old mystery.

Thankfully, we're, again, not given a straight answer! Some might be really frustrated by that, though. Tyrell Corp. is also gone, as seen in the Black Out 2022 short anime movie, and a new mastermind replaced Tyrell.

Wallace, played perfectly by Jared Leto, is a new breeder of replicants who considers them his children, angels. He doesn't have a lot of screentime and he doesn't actually do much in the movie, but his presence was always intense and his dialogue is very thought-provoking, especially during the scene where we witness a birth of a replicant.

Wallace Corp. also looks breathtakingly beautiful! The whole structure of the building is made to look like a pyramid and the inside is fully golden yellow/black. The main "meeting room" where Wallace always has talks with his angel Luv and, later, with Deckard, is extraordinary.

The light is always moving in a circle and the shadows keep changing as the light moves. It's extremely hard to explain this, but if you've seen the movie then you know what I'm talking about.

It's gorgeous. The archives, also in Wallace Corp., look breathtaking. I adore every single shot that takes place in that building. Ryan Gosling plays K, a replicant blade runner, perfectly! My favourite scene with him was when he was looking for the child in an orphanage.

To add some context here, every replicant has a certain memory implanted in him to make him seem more human. K only remembers one thing. As a child, he had a wooden horse toy with something imprinted on the back of it and some kids wanted to take it away from him so he ran from them and hid the toy in one of the broken furnaces.

As K is looking for information about the child in the orphanage, he realizes this is the place that he remembers as a child. After a few minutes of exploring, he actually finds the wooden horse hidden in the furnace which leads to a very devastating scene accompanied by one of the soundtrack's best tracks.

It's a very haunting scene because this makes K think that he is that child and being that child will only bring him sadness as he will be hunted for the rest of his life. He realizes the danger of it and breaks down.

It was truly heart-wrenching. Another scene that mesmerized me just like this one did was the one where he goes to a woman who makes these memories to see if his memory is real. She takes a look at his memory and tears start coming down her face as K sits there with zero movement, only his eyes getting watery and red.

She says that someone did live this memory and that it's real. K, again, breaks down and the emotions that his character was feeling were so well potrayed by Gosling that I'm not even going to be surprised if he gets nominated for an Oscar this year.

Harrison Ford reprised his role of Rick Deckard in 2049. The introduction to his character was glorious! Again, the visual style of the place where Deckard lives was out of this world. I can't praise the movie enough regarding the direction and cinematography.

I'm not going to say anything about Deckard and what he does in this movie because I really do not want to spoil anything regarding his story. I'll just say that it was very emotional and very satisfying.

The ending, especially, was beautifully realized. I'm in awe at how perfectly everything concluded. The CGI is wonderful! Nothing ever looked fake, not one single thing. Everything looked unusually realistic and there were times where I just stared at the screen without even realising I haven't blinked for minutes.

The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch is a bliss. It's very reminiscent of the Vangelis soundtrack for Blade Runner and it was perfect! I got goosebumps every single time that deep synth kicked in.

It's most certainly best experienced in a cinema, though. I can't wait for this movie to come out on blu-ray so I can watch it again and again and again. All in all, Blade Runner 2049 is a phenomenal movie that completely blew me away and I couldn't recommend seeing this movie more.

Truly one of a kind movie and something you don't see very often coming to cinemas. It's basically a 200 million dollar art movie and with its epic length of 2 hours and 40 minutes, I was surprised at how short it actually was! I think a lot of "mainstream" audiences will dislike this movie for being boring, long and not action-heavy.

As soon as I walked out of the cinema, I could hear a woman behind me saying how she slept through half of the movie. It makes me feel kind of sad that extraordinary movies, like this one, get hated on so much by casual moviegoers.

Oh well, just got to get used to that. Still, 2049 is currently the movie of the year for me and I couldn't be happier with it.