Standing in the shadow of giants.

Rating: 3/10 (22 October 2017)

I broke a taboo and went to see the Film Which Shouldn't Have Been Made, aka Blade Runner 2049. And regretted it.
Not quite sure which bit was the worst, so I'll start from the good ones. CGI was the biggest player and reaching levels never seen before. Rachael gave me, indeed, the goose bumps. Photography was gorgeous but in many ways not comparable to the original. The 2049 version of Pris was as good as the original, and not because of CGI, which is nice. The BR1-way of nice, which had no CGI.
Lots of juicy bits to take us for a wonderful trip down memory lane, but all these great bits seem to have been scripted to make a replica(-nt) of the original film. They are not hidden somewhere to let the audience spot them and delight with their discovery. Beside the cameos played by the original actors, the numerous references to the first film are a substantial part of the footage. They are not nuanced, they are slapped in the face of the public in inescapable order: car zooming over LA (check), Pris (check), origami (check), exotic animal dealer in seedy district (double check), PanAm (check), Coca-Cola billboards (check), Atari ads (check). And the list goes on.
With that out of the way, let's face it, if it hadn't be for the CGI, the cameos and the plagiarism, the film had very little to offer. The soundtrack was horrid; bombastic, droning and uninspired much like Hans Zimmer's previous stuff. The repeating nods to the original soundtrack were coarse and, at the same time, they made his almost bearable. No stupid voice over of the very first BR theatrical version, but a big fat explanation right in the middle of the film, by a one-eyed replicant, in a scene that made me expect Tina Turner appear in leather clothes. Beside the gratuitous explanation, the plot is not as linear as one might expect, but it seems that all the ideas and influences have been, sort of, stitched in a hurry, cramming as much stuff as possible in a film that was already too long.
The influence of "Her" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709) is evident, but while Her had all the time to develop the psychological drama, in BR2049 the same ideas are badly developed, and CGI gets massively in the way, distracting from the drama.
The first BR blurred the boundaries of good and evil, as much as human and artificial. In BR2049 we have the reappearance of the super villain, much like in a Marvel flick. All the good old stereotypes of Hollywood film making are back, and one is to wonder why the cavalry didn't make it for the gran finale.
There are also good reasons to dislike the closing scene, which lets the audience leave the theatre with nothing to remember beside the special effects. The film should have ended right on that staircase and let us sink deep in K's existential agony. Which is amplified by its similarities to ours. But no, the scene, which is a bad copy of Roy's death (check), underlined by the same music (check), but not nearly the same pathos, is whisked aside in a hurry, and the happy ending cuts in. OK, Gosling is no Rutger Hauer, but his character had the same potential. Why did his death need to look so unimportant? BR1 led us to question what should be considered human and what is not; it shook our certainties. BR2049 seems to put that boundary firmly back in place: if you are not born, your feelings are just a delusional dream; you are a machine. Period.
Given the profusion of prequels, trailers and whatnot, we had to endure, it is only to be expected a string of director's cuts. While the first Blade Runner had a history that unfolded throughout its several editions, due to its initial misunderstanding and its later rise to cult status, the repackaging of this one has probably been planned upfront, as a way to stand firmly in the shadow of the original film.
While Blade Runner inspired generations, I won't be surprised if its sequel will soon be forgotten. As already written by someone else, Blade Runner 2049 looks like a flawed replicant and the only feeling you will be left with is a sense of regret for having wasted three hours of your life.