Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Definitelymayb — 05 Oct 2017

I've just finished watching Blade Runner 2049 and visually, its an amazing film that is second to none. After that said, I'm kind of disappointed with the film and don't think its anywhere as a lot of the critics I like have stated the film to be.

First as a Denis Villeneuve fan who have seen all his English works (apart from Enemy), this is by far his least impressive work. The problem is not really his direction, but rather the less than impressive writing and some very on the nose-exposition that makes the world less believable as it should be. Perhaps the biggest problem with this film is that it raises a lot of questions that don't really invite intrigue as it hopes it should do. The film is plot heavy compared with the original, but unlike the original, I don't feel the world building in 2049 is as good as the original. For example, the original was always a character study with Deckard who lived in this futuristic LA who was suddenly plugged back to his job. Here we saw the cyberpunk world he lived in with many interactions between characters that seem real and genuine. However in 2049, Ryan Gosling's character is never really interacting with characters that feel part of the world, but rather characters to further the plot point.For example, many of the character interactions involve just two people who either point Gosling to somewhere or discuss exposition. You never get a sense of any of these characters. Note in the original the society seems lived in with Dekard constantly having to push people away or him drinking the alcohol at the bar which seems like what he would normally do etc. The biggest offender in 2049 is that the film has characters and events that lack consistent motivation with logic jumping points that bugged me throughout the film. Because I don't wanna spoil any of the plot really, its worth noting that a lot of what happens doesn't necessarily follow the things said or done preceding it. That said, the original Blade runner didn't really per se have much of a plot either, but which is why I've always classified the original as a character study more than anything else. Given that Villenueve is a master of this genre (given all his films are character studies), it is ultra disappointing that Ryan Gosling's character doesn't go through the same journey nor development that Deckard went through. Sure there might be some sentimental aspects that happens in the film, especially with the female characters, there is never a scene like when Deckard starts drinking (after killing Zhora) or his nod at the end that symbolises anything gone through, so when sentimental events happen in 2049, I never felt any emotion towards these events unfortunately.

The other problem with 2049 is that it sets up a lot of hints of a bigger world which feels like playing an RPG game with many side quests available. In fact, I would go so far as to compare this movie as awfully similar to the Deus Ex game series. Part of the problem lies with the co-writer Michael Green who also happen to write Alien Covenant and Logan which had the same issues popping up with this film (great premises and start, but then devovles into convuluted plots and sets up that goes nowhere).

Given that the original Blade runner inspired so much of the genre we know today, its disappointing that 2049 doesn't really offer us anything new or done better in terms of the sci-fi trope. In fact, 2049 rather borrows a lot of its plot and themes from current films that have done it better. There a little bit of Her here, a little bit of Children of Men here, and even a little bit of Ex Machina, but when put together, does not feel as satisfying.

Also with the extremely long movie length (I don't mind how long a film is), there could be a case made that it didnt need to take nearly 3 hours to tell this story. A lot of the film is broken into smaller dense sequences that involve people talking either about what is going on with the world, or furthering the plot. This is why I don't believe the world building is as good as the original. Whilst 2049 remains ever faithful to the Asian themes, the motif of the eyes etc, it has nowhere the ambiguity and the guts to tackle bigger issues like corporation takeover or the idea of 'white flight'. In fact, 2049 seems to abandon a lot of the themes from the original that doesn't seem to reflect in a more futurstic LA.

Overall 2049 is still a dazzle of a film and is worth watching as a good sequel. However, it is clearly overstated as the acting and cinematography are great, but not so acclaimed as some might say. There are lot of things that work in this film, but I feel as though this doesn't per se elevate the film to the status as the original. I hope this doesn't become a franchise and that if they decide to do the next iteration, it should be something with a more a personal setting and philosophical overtone, rather than a plot heavy noir.