A Little Long But A Very Good Sequel

Rating: 9/10 (6 October 2017)

Like a few others that wrote reviews, I too re-watched the original for about the 50th time just a few hours before going to see this film. This movie has stunning visuals that compliments the original without going overboard with the CGI, wonderful hues that helped differentiate locations that weren't needed in the original film because it was only dark with beacons of neon, or dark and raining with beacons of neon, because it was set in pretty much one general location of the city.
The story expands beyond the city where a replicant Blade Runner with a nomenclature of "K" does what Blade Runners are supposed to do, retire replicants without having any emotions interfering with the task at hand, until a dying replicant cryptically mutters "you've never seen a miracle", that and a out of place item on the ground triggers a search that leads to the bigger story of what happened to Deckard and Rachael and the possible effect of their mysterious departure.
The original Blade Runner set the tone and style for many movies and TV shows that came after it, just like Night of the Living Dead set the tone for almost all zombie movies after it. It was good, dark Sci-Fi without peers when the alternative was buying Reese's Pieces and making jokes about phoning home.
Jared Leto was underused in this movie but adding more screen time for him by cutting scenes may have caused story continuation issues while trying to meld the past to the future, and probably couldn't have been done easily without lengthening the movie considerably, but his character could be central to a potential sequel.
Blade Runner 2049 has a lot more action than the original but it's not a mindless slug/slogfest like so many movies that have little time for storytelling.
One of the small things I did enjoy was a tip of the hat to the scene in the original where Deckard was magnifying the photo of Zhora and the scene in BR2049 when the lab was trying to find a serial number, the flick-flick sound of magnification seem very similar. Also, bringing Edward James Olmos in for a cameo as Gaff and watching him from the waist up, not seeing his hands, but taking an educated guess at what he may be doing, and being half-surprised he's moved up a level from match figures.
The only drawback of seeing a film like this in a theater is you're unable to pause or back it up when something happens that takes a little time fathom or put into context with everything else, just like the original Blade Runner it'll take time and multiple viewings to decipher all you've just seen.