Review of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Glauco D — 08 Jan 2018

A visually stunning sequel, but one that ultimately leaves you cold. The photography, set designs and score are superb and do a great job of recapturing the mood of the original film. What this sequel doesn't do is to add anything to the themes already explored in the original: what makes humans "real"? What is the importance of memories? What is a soul? Do androids dream of electric sheep? The hi-tech gadgets are clever and fun, but it's really just more of the same basic conundrums, it seems the writers missed a great opportunity to ask new questions or maybe answer some of the old ones.

At times the film tries too hard to be cool and in doing that loses precisely that soul which the protagonist is trying so hard to find.

I loathed Gosling in most of his previous endeavours, not least La La Land where he positively made me want to throw myself off the plane I was flying in. Here he just about gets away with it because his acting is so wooden and lifeless, he's in fact a very apt casting choice for a brain-washed replicant. Except when he approaches the end of his journey and he is supposed to have understood more, grown and evolved, his acting style remains exactly the same (moody and monotone, because he is incapable of anything else) which makes it impossible for us to sympathise with him or his cause, to the point where I found myself rooting for the bad guys.

Speaking of whom, Jared Leto and Sylvia Hoeks do their best with the given script, but unfortunately they have been written in as totally one-dimensional characters, with no redeeming traits whatsoever, which these days seems just a bit lazy. Even the 1982 baddies had more facets than these two. Come to think of it, were there any obvious baddies in the original? Hard to call it, which is one of the reasons that film has endured, whereas this one will be forgotten next month.

All in all, probably worth watching if you've nothing better to do, but don't expect to watch it and wake up tomorrow with images and questions still going through your head. That's the only way to really judge how good a film is, so given I've thought about it for zero minutes since watching it, three stars is a generous score.