Back to the blade

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2017)

The original Blade Runner was a futuristic noir thriller. It did not need a sequel but maybe like another film released in 1982, Tron, the producers thought a belated sequel was required.
Denis Villeneuve directs with Ridley Scott taking a hands off Executive Producer role. The visuals are still great but not as breathtaking as the original film. We see a dark multi ethnic rain soaked LA with giant billboards.
Ryan Gosling plays Agent K, a replicant whose job is to retire the older replicants produced in the era of the original film. The newer replicants are OK still being used as slave workers.
Agent K comes across some buried bones which again leads to an investigation into identity, false memories and the whereabouts of an impossible child, now grown up.
Jared Leto plays the mad messianic Wallace, the man who has taken over the Tyrell corporation and produces replicants but wants to creates life. He thinks Agent K will find the answers and sends one of his replicants out to assist and hinder his mission.
Harrison Ford returns as Deckard who hangs around in a desolate Las Vegas hotel with holographic images of Elvis and Frank Sinatra who might hold the clues to what happened to the child.
Blade Runner 2049 is really an overlong art film, it actually lacks the thriller element of the original film even some of the weird humour. I rewatched the original Blade Runner before I saw the sequel, despite the po-faced narration his Deckard provides some humour.
Blade Runner 2049 has a few cameos from the original film including an iconic recreation of a replicant which excellent use of CGI.
However the pacing and length is a negative, the story is not strong enough to sustain it although I have to credit the writers to lead you up one way and them wrong foot the viewer.