Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Mike F — 21 Nov 2017

I liked this movie but there were annoying problems with it, so lets get the good points out there first. This was a beautiful movie to take in, the effects weren't overly glossy and the cinematography was spot on, providing us with a grand sweeping vision of a cautionary future. Gosling turns in a good performance as does Ford who actually extends his range slightly in this movie but as others have pointed out feels under used. The script was a great exploration of some very big universal questions and the dialogue was tight and terse, paying homage to the original.

Now the bad. This movie is overly self indulgent with it's long slow plodding scenes. Many scenes seem to go on forever just to capture an artistic rendering that frankly we could've done without. More than once the point of a scene was telegraphed well in advance and I found myself anxiously just wanting the director to get us there already .

Now the story itself was something that I have mixed emotions about. The main quest was honestly milk toast covered in Christmas wrap. It was fairly ordinary and cliche although well acted. However I found the main sub plot between Joe and Joi to be fascinating and somewhat riveting. For me their relationship stirred more contemplative questions in me than the big quest. Speaking of the big quest, the villains seemed to have no real purpose except to juxtapose their inhumanity against our heroes quest for humanity. They were cardboard cutout sociopaths and Leno although adequate, became annoying as time went on.

Despite the negatives, the film stuck in my head days later, which is the sign of something worth seeing . I'd spend the money to see this on the big screen, just be prepared for a long stay.