Blade Runner 2049 - Do sheep dream of organic androids?
Blade Runner 2049 in not a bad film per se, it's a decent replica reminiscent of the original, but unfortunately it's as shallow as it's hollow.
A contradiction not all that unlike to the film itself. 2049 boasts great visuals yet this time with a sole purpose to look cool, rather than to support the story. The grimy and gritty world does not exist as it did in the previous film: dark, noiresque, full of life. This time around the grit feels superficial, sterile even. And not in the infertile kind of way. A lot of beautiful scenes but with no real purpose. I guess that's why a lot of people recommend watching it in 3D, so at least that way you'd get at least some of your money's worth.
Talking about pointlessness. Mixed in with the run time. There are a few scenes that should've been dropped either because they make no sense or are just pure unnecessary exposition. Why they're in the film? Guess they felt they needed to insert one specific action scene out of nowhere just to keep the viewer from falling asleep. And obviously they needed a scene for just the bad guy so that the audience would know that he's not just regular household evil bad dude, but a few steps extra.
Which brings me to how magnificently cliché ridden this film is. One would think 2049 stands for the number of overly overused solutions in storytelling that they've included in the new Blade Runner. You can rarely escape from it. It seems to be the criteria for the Hollywood's mass produced, mainstream mental-detainment. Thinking back now, I hope I am mistaking, because I can't remember a single original or unique moment in the whole film.
Perhaps it's also one of the reasons why Blade Runner 2049 lacks the depths the first one took a dive into. Sure, it tries, but its attempts are feeble. The ideals or aspirations don't resonate because, well, they seem manufactured. Pardon my pun once again.
Despite all of this, and make no mistake, I am no fanboy of the first film either (though I do think it's objectively better), you can still go for the ride and enjoy it. Even if it's going to be a bit jarring because of the overall pacing, but that also gives you time to repress some of the dumbest moments and imagine what else could go on in the world like that. Because the universe in Blade Runner is by itself pretty damn cool, just a shame the second film did not improve upon that.
S
2017