A visual cinematic gem, but a jumbled story

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2017)

Blade Runner is not only one of my favorite science fiction films of all time, it is one of my favorite films ever;-period. Blade Runner 2049 is a film that any Blade Runner fan would approve of. The atmosphere of the original film is matched in this one. The world is believable and feels lived in. Villeneuve will receive most of the credit, as he should. Cinematographer Roger Deakins makes sure to provide the surreal, dark, and gloomy ambiance that guarantees a brooding story.
That being said, I will not go as far as saying it is superior to the original, though, it is superior aesthetically. This is pure sci-fi art. I'll even go as far as saying that even the cinematography exceeds that of the original, but the story was convoluted. As long as this film is, I still felt it could have used another 40 minutes or so because there was so many parts of the story that were undeveloped. The story felt like a collection of subplots, with no clearly defined central plot. There were certain parts of the story that I hoped Villeneuve would emphasize on a bit more;-mostly having to do with the Older Model Replicants.
For those of you unfamiliar with the original film, Replicants, who are genetically modified humans, were built as slave laborers. But they were made too perfect and too human for their own good. "More human than human," was the motto of the Tyrell corporation, the corporation of genetic designers that engineered the replicants. The replicants are designed to obey and never rebel or overcome the limits of their programming and if they should ever do so, a fail-safe is activated that would shorten their lifespan.
As you know, it turned out that most of the Nexus 6 replicants were prone to rebelling and so all Nexus 6 replicants were to be hunted and killed by "Blade Runners." Blade Runners were Replicants themselves, except devoid of humanity and pure killing machines. They obeyed and were excellent at their jobs;--which was to kill or "retire" all Nexus 6 Replicants. In Blade Runner 2049 a new corporation figured out how to make new replicants that would obey and not rebel like the Nexus 6 Replicants. Any Nexus 6 replicants that remained in society, now called Older Models, were to be hunted and retired.
But when "Joe," a Blade Runner, played brilliantly by Ryan Gosling starts to experience breaks in his programming, he goes on a quest to find out if he is indeed like the Older Models, in that he is more human than the others of his kind. It turns out that some Older Model Replicants had the ability to reproduce naturally and so many of these Older Models hid their children in orphanages in order to keep them safe from being hunted by Blade Runners. Joe begins to think of himself as one of these children when he begins to suspect that his childhood memories were real and not implanted memories. His new mission causes him to lose his job as a Blade Runner and he risks being killed as he seeks to find out whether or not he had real parents. I always thought this whole idea of hunting Older Model replicants was allegorical of the holocaust, in that Jews were always prone to rebelling in religious scriptures.
The film also picks up on the threads where Ridley Scott left, which is a monumental task, and it succeeds. The original 'Blade Runner' left us with many questions regarding Rachel and Roy, and it left us wondering if Rachel actually felt love for Deckard. And in 2049, we are presented with a similar question, from a holographic girlfriend that Joe is madly in love with;- and we are left wondering if the hologram was really in love with Joe?", or was she just programmed to be in love?", "Is she capable of real emotions?" I only wished we had more of the holographic girlfriend, and more of the Older Model rebellion against their makers, instead of focusing so much on Joe finding his parents, or Deckard reuniting with his replicant child. There were lots of subplots in this film, and in the end, I found it to be a bit anticlimactic.
Blade Runner 2049 is fantastic movie nonetheless and a film I will watch again. But If you're hoping for action, be advised, that there is almost no action in this film, not until the last 15 minutes. Its a film that has more intellectual content than action so keep that in mind if you're hoping to see a popcorn film. This is not a popcorn film. Thank goodness for that!
Final rating- 8/10 Beautiful. Haunting. Poignant.
P.S. If you're not familiar with the original film, you might not enjoy this film as much.