Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Raj A — 10 Nov 2017

I was a big fan of the original Blade Runner movie and so I went to see the new one twice. I was hoping Blade Runner 2049 might grow on me during the 2nd viewing, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. I'll list my reservations with it below:

1. The film is too long. You have to produce this film within 2 hours and there is so much pointless stuff in there that can be cut. It desperately needs a new cut. Start by cutting the pointless prostitute scene and also the one where the replicant is born and get murdered a few minutes later. A lot of the violence/nudity is pointless and should be cut.

2. There is a lack of a central, simple plot. The first film has quite a simple plot, which is necessary because it's a difficult film to understand with complex themes. This film is all over the place. It has the complexity of the original and also a plot that jumps around. It's too much.

3. The music is really lacklustre. It's not a patch on what Vangelis did for the original. It seems to be intentionally toned down?

4. There is poor character development. I'm afraid Officer K is not an invigorating character. You really won't care what happens to him either way. He shows little emotion and is not a character that you can invest in. The best character is Luv who is an able replacement for Roy Batty. Tyrells replacement is a totally unrealistic psychopath. What a joke. The characters need to be feasible so that we feel like we are watching something real.

In summary, get this film cut down to 2 hours by cutting out the pap and energise the soundtrack. Then it can be almost as good as the original, but never as good due to the poor character development mentioned earlier. I'll still give it 4/5 due to the even lower quality of other movies being released at the moment.