Blade Runner 2049

There's probably no bigger fan of the original Blade Runner than me, so, first of all, I don't think a movie like this needed a sequel at all. In terms of the story, it's like The Matrix. There, the mythology was developed in the other two episodes, here, the story is developed in a way that makes sense, but does not enrich the original film. In terms of pure craftsmanship, it's a solid piece of filmmaking, but I didn’t feel the atmosphere of Scott's gem, that "Babylonian" mix of cultures and peoples with a predominantly Asian element where you could easily become an anonymous figurehead. Deakins does magic, yes, but the atmosphere is missing, and anyone who says otherwise has failed to feel the subtle nuances of the first Blade Runner. I missed an interesting character like J.F. Sebastian and his electronic toys in the prequel, I missed a fateful character like Pris, I missed a strong villain like Roy Batty whom you both hated and pitied. There's none of that in Villeneuve's film, just a terminator in a skirt and a bland Leto. Thanks at least for the holographic Joi, probably the only interesting character in the film. I just can’t avoid feeling slightly disappointed. (07.10.2017)

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. (03.11.2018)

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%. (05.10.2017)

A place of deep melancholy shallow landscaping. Instead of a simple noir story, this an incredibly supple and unfortunately desperately transparent story about the search for meaning in a world of vanishing memories. There is about the same difference between the original and this one as between a physical experience and the nicely painted backdrop. At the same time, Blade Runner 2049 well documents the impotence to which Hollywood has condemned the current fashion of resurrecting icons. Blade Runner was as much a tribute to history as engaging visions of the future world. The second part is just a blank canvas, where Villeneuve and Deakins apply a few new contours, but at the same time they can't break out of the familiarity of the old ones. Sure, that's not even the goal. But instead of a vision, the result is a sterile museum. And unfortunately, by far the worst directing moments that the brilliant Canadian has been part of. It is the same in key moments as the Chinese finale of Arrival. Paradoxically hurried, unfinished and explicitly simple in terms of script. The original Blade Runner had a secret. These are just transparently literal symbols. A fleeting thing that will only be remembered in 30 years as a testament to a time that has become entrenched in its own memories of visionary times. The epoch of replicants with a time fuse. I am betting a synthetic kidney. (09.10.2017)

The promising start and the entire first half of the film draw the audience into the great atmosphere embellished with design gems and monumental sound. Unfortunately, the plot development lags behind in terms of originality and sorely lacks space for the main villain, who was supposed to be the movie’s most powerful character, a threat to what remains of civilization and the system that has left the world on life support. And the usually great director Denis Villeneuve gets rid of him after just a few scenes, during which we learn nothing about him. The famous android musical theme “Tears in the Rain” in the ending brings us closer to understanding the feelings of the young Blade Runner and arouses nostalgia. But that’s not enough for a 160-minute film whose slow, almost sluggish pace doesn’t correspond to the depth and complexity of its plot. In other words, Blade Runner 2049 is an audio-visually stunning empty bubble. (13.11.2017)