Blade Runner 2049 Movie Review
One word review: Beautiful
I must admit, this is a difficult one to write. Blade Runner 2049 is unlike anything I’ve seen. Let’s be honest; the movie was very slow. But something about the film. Whether it’s the cinematic masterpiece, the music, or Ryan Gosling’s performance, I cannot take my eyes off a single scene in this movie.
So did I enjoy the movie?
Tell you the truth; I left the cinema feeling confused. I didn’t know what the point of this movie was. What was in those mere 3 hours long movie? Trying to put the pieces together. I watched the whole thing, just one toilet break, my mate said I missed nothing while I was in the toilet, I just missed another beautiful scene. Like this one below.
Do you have to watch the original to understand this movie?
No, you don’t have to. But if you have, you will appreciate this movie more. In the timeline, it’s 30 years after the original. But in the real world, it has been 35 years after the Blade Runner the first movie. Ridley Scott did a fantastic job creating the world of Blade Runner, 35 years ago, the cinematic experience, the visual effects, imagining that the movie released in 1982, yet it was stunning. And in Blade Runner 2049, they kept it that way.
This movie is not overusing the new CGI technology, instead, using more practical effects much like the original film. The movie didn’t feel too new, it still feels like the same world as the first Blade Runner. Sure, many things happened during the 30 years period in the movie, the Black Out, new replicant models created, Wallace cooperation taking over Tyrell, but it is still the same place, the same world.
How was Ryan Gosling?
If Ryan Gosling weren’t in this movie, no one apart from the diehard fans would have gone and watched this movie. Yes, it was a great cast, he is good with every movie he’s in lately, and he did a great job being a replicant, who’s also a Blade Runner named “K”. (Blade Runner supposed to hunt down and retire (kill) all the replicants (AI robots), there, did I make it more accessible?).
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), the original Blade Runner was… old (yet, still cool) in this movie. It’s always great to see an old cast in the movie 35 years later, but was it necessary to have him in this film? Probably not, he did give an extra mile for the movie, but without him, the movie will still be what it is.
The character that I like in this movie though was Ryan Gosling’s character’s AI hologram girlfriend, “Joi” (Ana de Armas). Being just a hologram, Joi as a character felt more human than the rest of them. It seems like she has feelings, and she can feel love. But thinking about it, she is just a product of Wallace cooperation. So anybody can own a Joi, so nobody knows whether her feelings were real or not.
Ok, so… did I like the movie?
Yes, again thinking about it. I did like the movie. I didn’t know it while watching in the cinema. But after a day, I cannot stop thinking about this movie. Trying to understand what’s going on, thinking back to what happened, and what was the meaning of it. Was it about what is real and what is not real? If you have a memory, would that make you real even you are an AI? Do memories make you human?
Unless you like the first movie, I wouldn’t want to recommend you to watch it. It’s long, slow, and dragging. Not everyone will enjoy it. But if you appreciate art, cinematography, and anything beautiful, please go and watch it, enjoy it in a cinema, let go and get sunk into the Blade Runner 2049’s world that the director Denis Villeneuve created. You will not be disappointed.
