Beautifully made & sure to be a future classic

Rating: 8/10 (11 October 2017)

With the original being one of my all time favorites I had been skeptical when I heard a sequel was in the pipeline. The skepticism I had was long forgotten after watching Blade Runner 2049. Firstly, the movie is a visual masterpiece. Every shot is like a painting. It manages to retain the dreamy atmosphere of futuristic LA while still bringing something original to the table. I enjoyed the soundtrack from Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch although it's not quite up there with that of Vangelis. In terms of story it might seem a bit underwritten in parts but I felt the central characters were emotionally resonating and any subplots would have distracted from the more important aspects of K's story. Ryan Gosling is excellent in the role of K and for the short time that Harrison Ford is on the screen he gives his best performance I've seen from him in a long time.
For some of the few downsides to the film. As much as I loved this movie I was surprised with the ending. I felt that it ended in a way that suggested too much towards a Blade Runner 3. I would have preferred if all the loose ends were tied up and with a running time of close to 3 hours you'd expect that to be the case. All in all I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys noir sci-fi and liked the original. It's definitely not going to be for everyone and the pacing is slower than most movies of today however, that's not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion.