Beautiful and faithful, even if a bit far-reaching

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2017)

The original Blade Runner is one of those films that left me cold at first but got progressively better the more I watch. It had a very dreamlike ambiguity that fit well to its futuristic noir setting but needed more dissecting to fully appreciate. Considering the many cuts that it had, director Ridley Scott couldn't muster with what he had either. It wasn't until the then-unsuccessful movie got a final cut that Scott found the soft balance between artistic dreamscape and science fiction in the film, which ultimately was declared a classic upon many film nerds. It was purely a unique and meditative experience which, like 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, told a complete story that questions our sense of reality and how far can we as man can reach beyond it.
The new sequel, BLADE RUNNER 2049, with ARRIVAL and SICARIO director Denis Villeneuve, aims to both expand and pay faithful attention to the original film and what it stood for. Updating the scenes while blending with the original, expanding the philosophies of our existence and our persistence to recreate it, continuing the story of Rick Decker rather than rehashing it, and even mostly replicating the Vangelis score. Its bold, far-reaching, and tightly restrictive sequel filmmaking, one that Hollywood cinema seriously needs considering the franchise-sequel-remake dreck we are forced to live in. Even though there are some elements that overreach its grasp, it mostly gets the job done as a worthy successor.
One thing it does right is get right down to humanizing the replicants. Now centered around Ryan Gosling as a replicant hunting other replicants, the film puts him on center as a guide to the films themes about how these beings cope with reality. Some small replicant details from the original get blossomed here, as they cope with their love, anger, memories, nostalgia, and the quest to find existence. The key difference is that it puts the themes to expand and even humanize the life of a replicant rather than leaving them illusive. We get brilliant techno ways in which our titular character finds love, identifies memories, copes with his existence, and ultimately comes to term with it. The whole subplot alone with Gosling and his robot love interest (Yeah yeah put HER joke in here) makes for easily the most emotionally resonant moments in the film. Its a film that fully branches from the foundation of the original in ways other sci-fi films in the past decade failed miserably on their own.
The sole caveat, however, is that it sacrifices the one key ingredient from the film; subtle poetry. Whereas the original felt ambiguous and transcendent in exploring our humanity, 2049 could not help but feel too modernized and accessible. The bloated run time, sudden swell of percussion of the score, fairly streamlined plot, expository dialogue up the wazoo, and a little too much of slow pace made it clear that the overall film could try so much while also keeping a modern blockbuster aesthetic. Much like the replicants, 2049 could only go so far for achieving the real thing.
Still it doesn't mean it totally falls apart. Even if the films ambitious reach is only as good as its grasp, the movie does have one hell of a reach. The set pieces are amazing, the small amount of action scenes puts me on edge, the acting from Gosling, Ford, Robin Wright, Ana De Armas and even freaking Jared Leto was phenomenal, and the story pays off relatively well. May not be the masterpiece everyone else says it is, but I'd be glad Hollywood takes notes from this rather than from JURASSIC WORLD, AVENGERS, or another STAR WARS spin off.
Definitely worth your time.
More reviews: https://letterboxd.com/Itachisan125/