Review: Blade Runner 2049 Is A Good Idea Ruined By An Over Zealous Director
- Oct 5, 2017
- 2 min read
It looks great, sounds great and it's acted well but its 90 minute plot is padded with at least an hour of meaningless philosophical discussion in what would have otherwise been an interesting movie.
K (Ryan Gosling), both a blade runner, one who hunts renegade replicants, and a replicant himself, discovers something strange during what is an otherwise textbook operation. The body of a replicant, a woman, who died in child birth. But a replicant, by design, cannot get pregnant, let alone give birth. It is at this point that what began as an interesting story devolves into 2 hours of lingering landscape shots, confusing villains and, of course, more "what does it mean to be human" philosophy than anyone ever needed, or wanted.
Blade Runner 2049 should have been good. The plot is fairly interesting and, when it's first introduced, it's very engaging. The acting, from Gosling and Ford to Robin Wright and even Jared Leto. There's an unexpected moment with Edward James Olmos and Dave Bautista gives maybe his best performance, albeit in a very minor role. The cinematography is as beatiful as it is haunting, and the same can be said for the music. But those aren't the things that hold a film together, and it appears that 2049 lacks any form of glue.
K is unrelatable on account of him being an emotionless android, the finer details of the plot slowly grow more and more absurd until they reach a point at which everyone gives up having a reason for it to be there and, once again, there's too much damn philosophical waxing. Seriously, if I wanted this there are a thousand other films where that's the focus, and there not built on the backs of sci-fi giants. While the original film had its fair share of this, it was handled much better than it is in 2049. Villeneuve wants nothing more than to ram it down your throat, again and again and again. It's not so much heavy handed as it is a punch to face.
If you don't care about plot, characters or an interesting film that feels twice as long as its already almost 3 hour run time, then watch Blade Runner 2049. If you want science fiction that deals with the ethics of humanity amidst a dystopian world, just watch Ridley Scott's film again.
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