Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Jacoobi456 — 05 Oct 2017

Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel to the amazing 1982 film, this time directed by Denis Villeneuve. This film was aesthetically outstanding in every way. The costumes were incredible, the sets and set design made you connect so much more with the characters because they felt so real, especially in downtown LA. You could tell a lot of effort went into the different sets, as each one is son unique, from K's (Ryan Gosling's) bedroom to the offices in the LAPD tower to the farm etc. Speaking of Ryan Gosling, he's done another great job in this role. Not once did I doubt he was a Blade Runner, and he effortlessly explorers his characters' subplot (one which I will not elaborate on for obvious reasons), and he just radiated bad-assery. There were a lot of takes with little to no sound/script, and all we had to look at were the amazing sets and emoting of the actors, which was pretty much always impeccable. All the actors and actresses involved did great performances - Harrison Ford slipped back into his role as Rick Deckard just like he was back in the 80's, and the villain(s) were menacing and equally as compelling as Gosling & Ford. (If it's not obvious already, the cameos of people in the 1982 version were very, very much appreciated!).

Probably my favourite aspect was the multitude of different angles and shots that Villeneuve used, as it constantly gave so many different perspectives of the sets and the characters and told the story in a very technical yet beautiful way, which leads me to congratulate the editors on a very good job well done. Not only did they tell the story well, they seamlessly linked flashbacks with the present plot, and often films can suffer from poor/excessive flashbacks, and I am happy to say: this one doesn't. As for issues, the pacing suffered on a few occasions, and to be perfectly honest I felt the film went on a little too long. There were some long takes (only some, as some were extremely effective) that dragged on a bit, and made me almost wish that it would cut to a different character/scene. Also,even though the sound was outstanding in this film and so sheerly loud, I sometimes felt the music was a little out of place in some scenes. This is probably one of my personal nit-picks, but in a couple of occasions I was like 'why is there music playing right now?' However, when there needed to be music there was, so there weren't scenes where I was asking for it to be added, just a couple where I think it should've been removed, (again, probably a personal thing.) The action scenes were great and well-choreographed, but to be honest I was expecting a few more that there actually was. Conclusion: if you liked the first one, definitely see this one (but I think you'll prefer the first one, I know I did), and even if you haven't seen the first one you should check it out, as it is visually stunning.