Blade Runner 2049

Go see this movie.  It is absolutely worth your time.  You also don't need to have seen its predecessor, and you don't need a plot summary or spoilers to help you decipher the film; you can follow the story.

In fact, the less you read in advance about Blade Runner 2049, the better your movie-going experience will be.  Yes, that includes this blog entry; feel free to read the rest of this piece after you've watched the film once.

As strong as that endorsement is, let's be clear:  this picture has a lot of problems.  Some involve science, some involve story structure, and some involve its treatment of women; no woman here is ever far from the stereotype you will immediately be able to associate with her.

Despite all of that, though, you should watch the movie.  Visually, it is stunning, absolutely gorgeous, a ride through a future that is constantly overloading us on multiple levels.  It also asks great questions, important questions, and ones we cannot contemplate too much. 

The acting is uniformly strong.  Ryan Gosling's frequently unemotional performance style meshes perfectly with this role, but everyone in the movie plays their character well. 

Go see it.

I already look forward to watching it a second time.

Blade Runner 2049 might actually be good

As I wrote back in May, I never doubted that I would go see Blade Runner 2049 when it hit the theaters.  What I was uncertain about was whether the movie needed to exist at all and, given that it was about to, whether it had a prayer of being good.

From the early reviews--the film has a RottenTomatoes critics rating of 98% as I write this--the answer appears to be that the movie in fact may be not merely good, but excellent, a thoughtful and even mind-blowing (to some critics) sequel.

I'm by no means convinced that the critics are right, but I have now gone from planning somewhat reluctantly to catch the movie to being downright excited about it.

Until it appears next week, we can all enjoy this trailer.



I will report my own thoughts on the film once I've seen it.

Blade Runner: Final Cut

A group of us gathered the other night to watch this version of the classic SF film.  I'd never seen this 2007 re-cut before, though I knew it was the only one over which Ridley Scott had full artistic control.

I highly recommend it.

Gone is the annoying voiceover.  Present are the cuts and violent scenes from the international release, the original ending, and even the full unicorn dream.

The print, which we watched on a Blu-Ray disc playing on a large 4K TV, was stunning, every image crisp and clean.  The future still appeared as grim and gritty as I remembered it being, but the print's quality let us see all the details like never before.

The movie has always been troubling on several levels, and on this re-watching I was particularly bothered by the near-rape tone of Deckard's "love scene" with Rachael.  Though that scene didn't strike me as different from its version in the original theatrical release, it bothered me more now than it did then, probably because of changes in me.  One could argue that it helps make the case for Deckard being a replicant, but whatever the reason, the scene is disturbing.

I'm not the kind of Blade Runner fan who has seen every cut of the film; until now, I'd watched only the U.S. theatrical version.  Even so, I found this Final Cut edition to be quite compelling.  Check it out if you get the chance.