Blade Runner 2049

I am still trying to find my way in the first installment because I hid my indisputable intellectual outbursts in a too one-sided narrative. Now Hampton Fancher and Michael Green are turning such a concept upside down and subtly unfold countless philosophical and psychological motives behind each seemingly clear scene or line. How much resonated within me even after a simple advertisement or a glance into the distance. To make viewers wait so long for someone they are already eagerly trembling for, according to the poster, can't be done just by anyone, and it surprises me how much depression lies behind that waiting. In Denis Villeneuve's rendition, the year 2049 has heaps of pain in its corners, but paradoxically awakens long-forgotten joys, hidden in memories "someone experienced." It wrenches an unwavering desire to live or exist from the depths of the soul and proves that the new Blade Runner is definitely not cold, and those who say so perhaps didn't even perceive it that way. Ryan Gosling was born for roles full of hidden emotions, so I experienced that inner turmoil and rising resistance with him to the very last drop. In my case, it was an intense, extremely emotional experience thanks to ethereally light and resonating music when the story cut me somewhere in the heart at unexpected moments, conjuring bitter tears. The only thing that was cold about it was the snow, the rain, and the mood of the world in which it took place. (10/06/2017)

Unfortunately, this one missed me. I turned off the old Blade Runner halfway through and it would have turned out the same had I watched this one at home. I consider Denis Villeneuve to be a very promising and skilled director, Sicario with Prisoners are among my favorite films, but I find Blade Runner 2049 unrewarding as an audience member. Visually, of course, it's a treat and makes you want to take a camera and photograph a every single scene. Ryan Gosling was a good fit for the lead role, but that's probably all there is to it. The vaunted Harrison Ford shows up 30 minutes before the end, a time when you are tired and exhausted, Jared Leto as the bad guy is there 10 minutes overall, which is perhaps one of the biggest problems, because a good bad guy makes a good movie. The R-rating is very underused, there are no twists and the action makes up about 15 minutes of the 163 minute running time, well no wonder 5 people left the theater and if I wasn't an proper movie fan I probably would have left too. Too artsy, surreal and dreamy, it almost gave me hemorrhoids from the constant changes of positions in my seat! 45% (10/14/2017)

A visually intoxicating sequel that should earn at least Deakins an Oscar. Villeneuve prepares the ground in the first half and takes us back to the familiar world from the mind of Phillip K. Dick, where the bullied Gosling is trying to do his work. The offering to racist roots works better than 12 years in chains. Digging about in the past is another tribute to old school detective movies and Elvis steals the show in the Vegas sequence. Heavy ruminations about the nature of artificial beings, about what is reality and what good is and is not good. A fantastically negative Leto who, in this memorable role, fundamentally means well. Ford’s return to Deckard’s shoes is expedient, not just a cheap promo. He’s still got it in him. Zimmer’s music again thunderous. Interlinked. (10/08/2017)

In addition to a portion of hate, this review contains SPOILERS. The most notable thing remembered the day after viewing: Ryan Gosling had a really cool coat; I wouldn’t mind having one for myself in the winter. In the context of current Hollywood production, Blade Runner 2049 is indisputably an unusual film (in a way similar to Spectre). The characters, ideas and atmosphere are more important for it than the plot. The main protagonist does not play such an important role in the story as he (and we along with him) has long believed, which reinforces the dominant feeling of existential angst that comes from the impossibility of holding one’s fate firmly in one’s own hands. Most of the scenes begin a bit early and end a little later than is necessary to convey the essential information. Other scenes are of negligible importance to the story and serve mainly to evoke a specific atmosphere or to fill out the fictional world. (The rhythmising of the narrative by means of the deaths of the female characters can also be considered an original idea; in the final act, one dies every ten minutes, which is more indicative of the screenwriters’ lack of feeling than of their storytelling abilities.) The problem is that all of this is held together by a stylistically dull (the only interesting scene is the one in the bar in which Ford slaps Gosling) and straightforward melodramatic story about a son looking for his father (with the help of a wooden horse) and a father looking for his daughter (the final sign of class revolution, corresponding in its simplicity to a young adult novel that is better left unmentioned), and the whole film is basically much more predictable, literal and generic than it thinks it is and its pompous treatment would suggest (see the poster for the most essential revelation). Like the rest of Villeneuve’s work, Blade Runner 2049 confirms that a film with actors who spend the entire time acting as if someone has taken their favourite toy away from them (which is not too far from the truth in the case of Gosling’s character) and filmed in long shots accompanied by atmospheric background music will seem serious and important, but only on the surface. Whereas Scott’s film was thought-provoking with its abundance of things left unsaid, in this new treatment, the characters take care of all the philosophising for the viewer, expressing themselves in stilted, monosyllabic sentences. We can’t help but marvel at how beautifully the whole thing is designed (the sound design, at least, is worthy of an Oscar), but a coffee-table book with photos of the artwork would serve the purpose just as well as a nearly three-hour movie. I’m quite worried that Villeneuve’s Dune will be the same thing in pale blue (or orange). 65%. (10/05/2017)

Denis Villeneuve kept the film pretty true to its source material. He prepared a sequel to the legendary techno sci-fi, which deserves praise. He forgot about any emotions and thus made the film into a cold doll, but on the other hand, he played beautifully with Los Angeles of the future and he harmonized it perfectly with the amazing synthwave music. You won’t find orgies like this in just any movie. After viewing I actually realized that I actually ended up with the same impression of the sequel as I had of the original movie. So, to save myself from a three-star review, I gave it four stars straight away. The visuals in combination with the music simply forced me to. Even though I haven’t seen a colder movie in a long time. (11/03/2018)