Not my cup of tea - but absolutely wonderful.

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2017)

Now. I am coming to Blade Runner a little late. 35 years late, in fact. In 1982 I was married to a wife who only ever wanted to watch Rom-Coms. Sadly Sci-Fi was off the viewing agenda, despite the fact that I had a colleague (Niall) who lived 'Blade Runner 1' and managed to bring a line from it into our work every day making me want to see it. Thirty five years and one divorce later, I managed to catch up with BR1 and BR2 in the same fortnight, at the encouragement of my latest ex. How times change.
I am not a sci-fi fan. Towering cities and flying cars usually turn me straight off but the moody, near-apocalyptic atmosphere of BR1 and the human/non human emotional conflicts really caught my imagination. In BR2 I was astounded at how accurately Denis Villeneuve picked up the cyber-ball and ran with it so easily, recreating the same atmosphere and continuing a complex story-line so deftly and seamlessly. It could have been Ridley Scott himself directing. I should have expected something good though. 'Arrival' showcased Villeneuve's amazing sensitivity and skill as a director so I should have known better (despite the fact that he didn't know the difference between an interpreter and a translator and assumed that 'interpreters' could interpret all languages!) That forgiven, he did a marvellous job with 'Arrival'.
Even though I am not a sci-fi fan 'Blade Runner 2049' engaged me totally -in particular the unchanged appearance of one of the original characters - and I am not talking about Harrison Ford! I had to look up how that was done. My only criticism of the film is that Ryan Gosling seemed to have used botox throughout the film. His face remained largely frozen. It was like watching 'Buster Keaton IS Blade Runner'. Shame, as he is capable of so much more. But, he might have been directed to play Rick Deckard as originally written, not as played by Harrison Ford. Who knows?
Anyway - at three hours, this is a long film with a sad plot twist at the end that caught me out. This is worth waiting for.
Unusually, for a genre that I don't generally like, this gets a ten out of ten from me and, I surprise myself in saying that I would like to see this subtle and thoughtful film again.