It’s easy to forget that Blade
Runner, the classic millions of now know and love, was not well received
back in 1982. With too much studio interference leading to a product Ridley
Scott was not happy with. It wasn’t until 2007 that Blade Runner: The Final Cut was released which then gave audiences
the best version of the film, as well as the one Scott deemed worthy of his
original image for the movie. Another 10 years later, Denis Villeneuve has
directed a film that is worthy of the Blade
Runner name, but as a film that expands its universe in ways we, as an
audience, never knew were possible. Blade
Runner 2049 is a visually breath-taking spectacle that asks different
question. It asks, “What does it means to be more than human?”
Blade Runner 2049
takes place 30 years after the events of the original and introduces us a new
Blade Runner named K. His job is to locate illegal Replicants residing on Earth
and ‘retire’ them. This has been made subsequently harder after the Blackout,
an act of sabotage destroying the Replicant database so that they may live
without being tracked. After dealing with one Replicant known as Sapper Morton, he proceeds to tells K why
he can do what he does saying, “It’s because you’ve never seen a miracle.” This
then drives the film and K’s motives as he begins to uncover a string of
mysteries which take him to the doorstep of Rick Deckard, so that he might shed
light on his strange case. To add extra gravity to the situation, the Wallace
Corporation are also in pursuit of this information. Having saved the world and
its colonies from the brink of crisis, Niander Wallace took over what was left
of the Tyrell Corp. and used it to create a new line of Replicants, more
resilient and more obedient than ever. That is as much as I’ll say about the
plot because I must not give anything away. Spoiling things about this movie
does it a complete disservice.
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| Do we know each other? |
It should probably go without saying that I am a big fan of Blade Runner, and even more so with its
excellent sequel. Denis Villeneuve, most known for Arrival and Sicaro, has
done what seems like an impossible task: take a beloved movie from the 1980s,
create a sequel which follows the story well and make it not only just as good,
but even better. Having worked closely with Ridley Scott and Hampton Fancher,
director and screenplay artist, who created the world of the original, 2049 gives us an expanded view of not
just the dystopic Los Angeles, but the radiated wastelands of California and
the garbage dumps of San Diego show how broken this world has now become. The
gigantic neon advertisements, the construction and form of Joi (K’s virtual
girlfriend) with a vast colour palette that matches the dynamic its
surroundings, this is a film that generates a sense of pleasure by letting you absorb
the ironic beauty of a dying world. Whatever the weather, this film works best
on the cinema screen as you need something of that size to captivate you in
every way. What submerges you in the world is the soundtrack. Hans Zimmer and
Benjamin Wallfisch have created something that sounds equally as technical and
futuristic as the original, but something that is also menacing and unsettling.
This allows us to feel awe-inspired at the majesty of what we are witnessing,
and fearful of how the soundtrack illustrates the underlying darkness that
operates in this world. Meeting Wallace for the first time is intimidating not
only because of the way Jared Leto plays him or because of his Egyptian-like
surroundings, it is the power of the soundtrack that binds these factors
together to create something far more sinister.
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| "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! |
The other part of what makes Blade Runner 2049 works is its pace. Yes, this is a long film
clocking in at almost 3 hours but it’s a story that needs time to be told. There
is no way you could condense this story into a shorter film. There are even 3
short film that explore the happenings in the 30-year gap between the films,
but are best experienced after the watching 2049
so you can then come to better terms with the lore yourself. The plot needs
time to tell you each detail, much like how a detective goes about solving a
case. Each new piece of evidence proposes new questions, and those questions
propose more questions and it is only after that we are given a few resolutions
to how certain things are and why they have come to be. In other words, this is
a film that requires your attention.It assumes you are smart
enough to connect the dots between the clues that ask why K is so invested in
solving this case that continues to blur the combined definitions of what
separates humans from Replicants.
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| "All those moments will be lost..." |
This then re-introduces us into the philosophical questions
the first film asked, what it means to be human and then in relation to that
question, how ‘human’ are Replicants? This film questions the nature of the
soul, with K being told early in the film that he’s been doing just fine
without one. What does that mean? Does having a soul mean you are able to follow
a set of morals and not just a set of orders? Luv, Wallace’s Replicant
assistant, obeys him in every action, but again shows signs of independence
which blurs the definition of what it means to be human, as how do you engineer
free will? Well, as we see in the original, Rachel choses to run away with
Deckard after he tells her she is a Replicant. Batty and his band of misfits
come to Earth to escape their enslaved lives on the colonies and in turn, look
for ways to extend their lives further than the 4 years they are given. The
same can be said for some of the characters in Blade Runner 2049 but without spoiling it, these new Replicants
have their extended life but look for meaning in their life, as any sentient
being would. To quote Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.” You may then ask;
how do we tell who is Replicant and who isn’t? Well, we can’t and that is the
point. The lines between what is and
isn’t human does not apply to how 2049
tells its story of Replicants evolving to becoming more than mere slaves to the
human race. Joi is the AI sold to the public as a life like companion. The most
interesting part to her character is that she is conscious of her existence as
a program not only as code, but as a physical being in her projected form. How
can a machine see think and feel? Isn’t that what a human does? The motto of
the Tyrell Corp. was “More human than human” and this is precisely what we are
given. Go ahead and take the Voight-Kampff test, not as easy as you might think
to prove you’re human… http://www.bfi.org.uk/are-you-a-replicant/
The performances in this film add that final touch of
brilliance to its components. Ryan Gosling gives a great performance as Officer
K in the way he is able to adapt his character to the new scenarios he finds
himself in and doesn’t let up for the entire film. Harrison Ford also gives a
great performance reprising his role as Deckard by showing just how much he has
aged and changed in these 30 years. Paralleling these two Blade Runners
side-by-side allows for an interesting turn of events as both go through
similar experiences regarding their investigations, but become completely
different characters because of what they end up discovering, leaving for some
nice tension when they first meet. Ana de Armas’ Joi gives the best
performance, in my opinion, as her characterisation of the mass-produced
relationship AI really begs the question, are her feelings genuine or
artificially pre-programmed and artificial? Jared Leto’s presence in the film
is very minimal considering he is meant to be this new global superpower, but
his will power to dominate is manifested in his unrelenting assistant Luv,
played by Sylvia Hoeks.
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| Far more likely to shoot first |
To summarise, this is a special movie. I found it rather
difficult to write this review and not say anything that might spoil the plot,
and a person’s attitude to wanting to go and see this film. I feel I have
exhausted ways in which I can praise this film without giving anything away and
so must end it here. Alternatively, I am more than happy to talk with those who
have seen the film. These talks will most likely lead to debates about what Blade Runner 2049 is really trying to
tell us, making it such a prefect Blade
Runner sequel.
9.8/10
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