BLADE RUNNER 2049

 

Blade Runner 2049 directed by French Canadian Denis Villeneuve is the long awaited follow up to the epic 1982 film Blade Runner.

Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner cemented its place in cinema history.

Blade Runner directed by British filmmaker Ridley Scott who had previously directed Alien in 1979, polarized audiences with dark neo-noir, released during the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Speilberg era.

So what is a Blade Runner?

Blade Runner featured Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who tracks rogue androids aka Replicants. It is set in dystopian Los Angeles 2019.

 

Blade Runner 2049 picks up thirty years later after the events of the original. It follows ‘K’ played by Ryan Gosling as he tries to solve another replicant mystery.

Oh course, Harrison Ford makes an appearance in the movie.

No surprise the marketing featured Harrison Ford heavily. Early teasers gave away what could have been a cool surprise.

So how does it stack up to the original film?

Blade Runner 2049 looks like Blade Runner. It is stylistically Blade Runner, different director, different vision. But it’s also not completely Blade Runner.

You can see the concept art on screen brought to life.  The shots carefully planned by Studio system committee, designs pinned on the walls of the production room.

Despite all the computer generated visual effects, holograms, it’s clean, almost too clean that it lacks the hard-boiled  grit, smoky atmosphere organic feel of 1982. It’s like a step backwards.

Denis Villeneuve’s notable credits Enemy and Prisoners proved the French Canadian director had a thrilling style. His mainstream big picture Arrival has lots of praise.

Villeneuve expands on the Blade Runner world with sparkly effects, but it falls flat. There are cool things in the movie, but damn it, it could have been better if Ridley Scott had taken over the project.

So what went wrong?

You decide.

Watch Blade Runner 2049 and compare it to Blade Runner. The style of Blade Runner 1982 cannot be recreated, rebooted, or remade.  It is truly unique cinema.  Blade Runner 2049 just comes off as big budget fan film.