Blade Runner 2049 (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2017) - EveryFilmIWatch Review

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Blade Runner 2049 is a perfect sequel to the original. There’s not too much self-referential material, which can get tedious. And yet it perfectly captures the spirit of the original in an updated, relevant sense. BR2049 is a film you should watch on the big screen with big speakers: the production design, soundtrack and cinematography are breath-taking. (I mean this literally: there was a moment in the cinema where I became conscious my mouth had dried up from having been agape for so long). And not in a way that’s trying to make up for lack of substance, either. If anything, these elements are substantial enough in their own right; I would feel deeply involved in the film were it comprised entirely of Deakins' landscape shots and Zimmer's sweeping, pulsating soundtrack, and nothing else.

But there is something else. Ryan Gosling hasn’t played a part as perfect for him since Drive. He is simply bang on in this roll, carrying those kind of deep rooted, suffocated emotions way below the surface that only escape to the audience in the faintest glimmer in his eyes. His plotline is also excellently crafted, as the newest Blade Runner who discovers a secret about his kind that could potentially tear apart the fabric of his world. Harrison Ford is back as Deckard, and he carries off what is essentially an extended cameo with aplomb. His scenes with Gosling are filled with a ludicrous amount of weight and intensity, which wouldn’t work in the hands of other actors.

Director Denis Villeneuve improves, for my money, on the iconic original with a well written, ultra-cool, visual feast that has a genuinely intriguing mystery at its heart and a world which I actually wish I could see in real life. Where Ridley Scott's BR tended to be removed and alien, Villeneuve’s is seductive and mesmerising, quietly needling at the idea that the corporate plasmas and hollow sexuality of Los Angeles 2049 feels a lot less than 32 years away from his audience's current reality.

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