A warning from the future

Rating: 9/10 (8 October 2017)

Director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Hampton Fancher (in collaboration with Michael Green) get things off to a great start by dusting down an omitted scene originally intended for the 80's classic. Ryan Gosling's Blade Runner, Officer K (Dick?), discovers a long buried secret whilst on a 'retirement' mission outside the walls of future LA. This sets the wheels in motion for a gripping, highly intriguing 2 hours 63 minutes of hallucinogenic dystopian wet dreams, as Gosling hunts for the hunter - Rick Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years...
So, how far have we come between 2019 and 2049? Well, the mash-up of all things vintage and cyber-punk have been aggressively separated out, finding the former unceremoniously tossed over the city wall to wilt and die in the misty post apocalyptic wilderness. The latter's underclass are forced into the Soylent Green over-crowding of Gosling's dead-end high-rise habit, leaving the overlords to bask in their sleek minimalist creature comforts behind closed doors.
The rich/poor divide is breathtakingly realised courtesy of perfectly nuanced art direction (think Gattaca meets Brazil) and Roger Deakins' achingly beautiful DP work. The lighting, design and colour schemes deployed in the perfectly timed build-up to Officer K's face-to-face with you-know-who, has to rate amongst one of the best directed sequences I've ever seen. It's almost like watching the greatest moment Kubrick never made.
Benjamin Wallfisch & Hans Zimmer's hammering Vangelis on steroids soundtrack feels less like music and more the organic hyperventilating of the gloomy Metropolis it supports. In fact – and I do mean this as a compliment - it's sometimes difficult to tell where (outstanding) sound design ends and music score begins (and vice versa).
OK, that's the gravy. But what really make this outing so enduring are Villeneuve & the writers' commitment to telling a story with characters and themes that are well worth your time. The ideas and threads presented in Ridley Scott's masterpiece and PKD's original source material are built upon quite substantially, juggling elemental symbolism (snow, rain & seawater equating life, death & rebirth) with the big existential questions of what it means to be human and the tragic disconnect that intervenes.
Whether it be by design, social-standing, physical-handicap or grim circumstance, every single character here - Gosling's perfectly muted, curiously Roy Batty attired, drone law-enforcer, Ana De Armis' sweet & tragic hologram Joi, Robin Wright's gutsy police chief Joshi, Harrison Ford's meaty, bladey, big & besty Deckard etc – is a slave. Like the original, no one here is in control - not even boo-hiss villains Wallace and his tearful hit-woman, Luv (played superbly by Jared Leto & Sylvia Hoeks respectively). Like everyone else, they too are manipulated by the puppet master society that has been allowed to grow around them, a dark warning from the future if ever there was one.
Any negatives? Whilst I honestly can't think of a single scene that shouldn't be there, some moments could do with a trim as Leto's scenes do tend to ramble on a bit. The action too, whilst still sparing, adheres more to the crowd-pleasing variety this time round, with the finale going a tad too good-guy vs bad guy/damsel-in- distress for comfort. That said the fantastically skilled Villeneuve's work behind the camera insures it always remains as credible as anything else he's ever done involving punch-ups and explosions.
The pace, like the original, is sedate and deliberate, the mood, a mix of oppressive brooding and melancholic bewilderment. Several passages enticingly emit the same kind of foreboding and dread normally found in the best horror movies, and the outcome retains the same downbeat ambiguity as before. The final moment, is perfect.
Was this sequel necessary? I thought it would be nay, but I'm happy to say it's a yay! This Blade Runner may share ticks and traits lifted from its predecessor - and it's too soon to say if it will go on to achieve the same reputation as Scott's signature movie – but thanks to the artistry and craftsmanship of Villeneuve and everyone else involved, the goods have turned up freshly minted with a personality all its own, delivering a tale that resonates loudly with the here and now. It deserves your attention. 9/10.