What happens when you throw some of the best artists in the biz together for a long-overdue franchise? A damn masterpiece.
Blade Runner 2049 sees producer Ridley Scott, director Denis Villeneuve (my personal favorite, of Enemy, Prisoners, Arrival, and Sicario), cinematographer Roger Deakins (another favorite, of too many great films to list), and screenwriter Michael Green -- having a great year between American Gods, Alien: Covenant, Logan, and this winter's Murder on the Orient Express remake -- teaming up for a pitch-perfect sequel 35 years after the iconic original. It really doesn't get much better than this, and the product proves it.
Thirty years after Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunted down a group of illegal, murderous replicants in a fabulously bleak Los Angeles, the game hasn't seemed to change much. Replicants, now largely integrated into human society, seem to be a factor in humanity's continued existence. K (Ryan Gosling) is now the titular blade runner, "retiring" older, rogue models. Whereas Deckard may or may not have been himself wholly human, the original film raised a lot of questions about the nature of humanity as we saw the "villains" exhibit admirable, even Christlike, qualities between their murders of humans who were cruel, stupid, greedy, and detached from their feelings. This sequel, however, starts off by declaring K to be a replicant, and continues by following his journey to transcend the limitations we cognitively place on his kind.
The inciting incident parallels K's journey of self-discovery, when he discovers the remains of a replicant who died in childbirth. As replicant pregnancy was thought impossible, his superior in the LAPD (Robin Wright) orders him to destroy the evidence and kill the offspring, afraid that this knowledge could lead to a sort of race war. As he delves deeper into the case, however, he begins to suspect he himself may be the offspring, and we learn that the replicant in question was Rachael, Deckard's amorous liaison thirty years prior. After questions of identity and implanted memories lead K to find Deckard living in isolation, the action really heats up, as replicant manufacturer Niander Wallace (an effectively understated Jared Leto) ruthlessly seeks the knowledge of replicant reproduction to bolster his business. I'll leave the plot there. Spoilers come and go, but the finale of the film is one that needs to be felt more than understood.
The film feels, impossibly, like a logical and artistic extension of the first one. While it carries its artists' distinct flavor, it also recalls similar images, themes, and texture of the original. It's still a neo-noir sci-fi mystery in all its glory, with impenetrable shadows at times awash in lurid blue or red hues, meditatively static camerawork, and enchanting scene designs of a decadent urban future. The droning music pounds into our ears, magnificently juxtaposed with some amazing sound effects that turn simple movements into grating tactile violence. My favorite scene, near the end, occurs in a watery chamber of golden ambiance, with sparse overhead light that reflects the gilded fluid ripples into the surrounding blackness; the mobile light sometimes sheds light on the two men in confrontation, sometimes leaves them shrouded, much as their dialogue does. Moments like these remind us that this vision of the future is one in which silence can be as abhorrent as the bewildering bustle of the street, and that reality is as thin as perspective and can be dramatically altered by a shifting light.
As I say, the film grows and expands on it premise organically while carving out its own place, making it the rare sequel to match its predecessor. I didn't see it in IMAX, but I wish I had. Go see it on as big a screen a you possibly can. It's a feast for both eye and ear and a treat for the mind, whirling with great themes and begging mainstream audiences to think at the movies. It's the latest in a trend of big-budget A-list Hollywood blockbusters to elevate the form to the level of high art. Come for Ryan Gosling, stay for Harrison Ford. Come for the devastating spectacle, stay for the riveting power of good sci-fi at work.
IMDb: Blade Runner 2049
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