Movie of the Week: Blade Runner 2049
A visually stunning examination of the meaning of personhood.
After two viewings of the original Blade Runner (first time the original theatrical release, the other the 2007 “Final Cut”), I’m still not positive I understand why it’s considered the classic that it is. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford-y and the final cut version especially focuses on philosophical themes that I usually enjoy. But still, I was never fully sucked in. Even after seeing the current sequel, Blade Runner 2049, I’m not sure I’m totally in love with the story as a whole. What I am in love with, however, is the dark and dystopian Los Angeles of the future that Ridley Scott initially sets up in the 1982 original, and which 2049 director Denis Villeneuve (and cinematographer Roger Deakins) carries to new heights. This environment blends perfectly with the two smoldering, lonely protagonists of the two films, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and current Blade Runner K (Ryan Gosling). From there, the plots for both films almost hit the right marks, but neither of them quite manages it.
Aside from both protagonists being brooding police officers whose duty is to hunt down and “retire” the incredibly humanoid artificial beings known as “replicants,” the similarities between Deckard and K end right about there. Deckard, although a generally stoic man, is human. Blade Runner K is a newer model of replicant that has been designed without the rebellious tendencies of the older Nexus 8 models seen in the original film. The job description is still the same, however, and the leadoff of the movie is K retiring a replicant played by the always-giant Dave Bautista.
What is initially a routine retiring turns out to just be the tip of the iceberg in a deeper plot that has roots back in the original film (which took place thirty years earlier, in 2019). The chain of events set in motion send K on a journey of self discovery and contemplation about his place in the universe as the plot becomes thicker and thicker (to the point of mild-to-moderate convolution). To go into much more detail about the specifics of the plot would be to risk ruining it for you fine people, so I’ll refrain. I’m also not 100% positive of what happened and why for a lot of the movie, so there’s that too.
The most compelling aspects of the movie come when the grander plot of the two films (and most likely of the sequels as well) isn’t the focal point. The first hour of the film is Gosling wandering around through the dystopian wasteland of California that Villeneuve and Deakins have brilliantly crafted. Just getting to explore this gorgeously decrepit landscape and getting to know the characters is far more fun than anything involving the bigger, broader narrative. A narrative that, spoiler, involves foreshadowing to a replicant uprising against the humans in the next movie. Gag.
In the first hour, we get a glimpse of the discrimination that K faces from both humans, who see his kind as second-class citizens, and the older replicants, who see him as a servant to their tyrannical human creators. We get a look into the psyche of a being who knows that he is “artificial,” created by humans. K is created with the knowledge that all of his memories before his incept date are mere implants, and that he is no more than an incredibly expensive replica of a real person. While looking at the blurred line between man and hyper-intelligent machine might be a little played out in movies, the first hour of 2049 works as an incredibly personal look at K’s life and how he interprets it.
We are also introduced to Joi early on, K’s Her-esque significant other who is a highly intelligent A.I. system with a digitized hologram embodiment and is portrayed by Ana de Armas. Quickly, Joi becomes the most compelling character in the whole film. She is designed for the sole purpose of pleasing her owner, in this case K, yet has the same mental capacity and emotional capabilities as you or me. Throughout 2049, we see her go through the same struggle that K does, trying to figure out what the meaning of her existence is, but with a much wider range of emotions than K is ever allowed to show. So between Gosling’s stoic badassness, Joi’s heartbreaking desire to be a real person, and juuuuust the right amount of Robin Wright as “Futuristic LAPD Lieutenant,” the first half of 2049 makes for a really, really good start.
Then the plot starts to get away from everyone, Deckard gets involved and is underwhelming, there is barely any Jared Leto which somehow manages to be way too much Jared Leto, and the movie goes on for about twenty to thirty minutes too long. The script and Villeneuve move away from the highly personal, thoughtful portrait that is painted in the first half of the movie, instead swapping it for run-of-the-mill blockbuster dialogue and trying too hard to fill in all the gaps between the original movie and now. It’s not until the climactic scene (which is also a little long itself, but still quite good) that 2049 gets back on track to stick the landing.
Even with the rocky middle though, the virtues of the film remain true and overwhelm any missteps that are taken along the way. Yes, the plot feels rushed and uncompelling in the middle. Yes, Harrison Ford is wildly underused. Yes, it is a little cliche to go through the “Am I a real boy?” narrative with not one but two artificial characters. Yes, there are flaws in this movie. But even with its flaws and disappointments, I’d say that this is a film worthy of praise. Much like its predecessor, however, it falls below the pantheon of the truly great science fiction films (which is nothing to be ashamed of).
At the end of the day, “What does it mean to be a person?” is the central question of both the original film and Blade Runner 2049. While that is not an altogether original question, especially when approached through the perspective of a character who’s not human, it seems to be handled well enough in 2049. The overarching plot of the two films mucked the middle hour of the movie down a bit and made it a little more complicated and cliche than it needed to be. But between the coolness of Gosling, the stalwarts Harrison Ford and Robin Wright, the unexpected show stealing by Ana de Armas as Joi, and apex Deakins, 2049 passes as an effective, and at times haunting, examination of both biological and artificial creatures trying to figure out their place in a deteriorating world.
Should you see it?
“Ryan Gosling?”– Yep. Well, kinda. He’s in it and is very much a badass and very much wears a super dope leather duster. But this movie is basically 165 minutes of “beat the Christ out of Ryan Gosling.” So if you don’t think you can handle seeing him get his wonderful face pounded a lot of times, it might not be your favorite movie.
“Harrison Ford!”– Ehh. He does a good job with what he’s given, as usual, but he and the character of Deckard are wildly under-used. He only enters the film after about 110 minutes and doesn’t really do all that much when he’s on screen. A missed opportunity if you ask me.
“I don’t want to see another cookie-cutter franchise action movie.”– Say what you will about this movie, but it is not that. Some might say that, relative to the original, it is far more angled towards a wider audience (which it is). Even still, it’s better than most of the generic super hero movies out there today. Oh, and there’s not really that much action in it. Much like the first movie, this one hinges almost completely on cinematography, a slow-burning noir-ish plot, and highly philosophical themes.
“I am a geek for beautifully shot films.”– Yeah, this is the one for you. Roger Deakins is the absolute winner of this movie, and will certainly be nominated for (and most likely win) many awards for his work here. He made me almost completely disregard the lukewarm plot, and bumped this movie into a tier it wouldn’t otherwise be in without him.
“I am a geek for a great musical score.”– This is a good movie for that as well. Hanz Zimmer had a hand in composing the score for 2049, and it shows. His mastery of sound is the perfect accompaniment to the visual display that Deakins and Villeneuve provide.
“I want everything to make perfect sense.”– Not gonna work with this one. This movie is really good at making you feel some type of way, only you’re not totally sure why. Trying to follow the intricacies of the narrative and the reasons the characters do the things they do is tough. But again, mainly because of Deakins and Villeneuve and the score, Blade Runner 2049 does a really good job of making you feel something vague but hard to describe, and even harder to pin down why you feel that way. It’s a confounding movie, both in its plot and in trying to sort out your feelings about it afterwards.
Next week: The Florida Project.