A product of 21st Century Movie Making - watch it again

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2019)

First off, I'll just say now I loved this film. Just like the original divided opinion, so has this, but that's ok. Some of the best films do that. Yeah, it's ponderous. Sure, the visuals may feel like style over substance. And at times, it is a cold and calculating journey into the dark decay of humanity. It's not an uplifting film. Nor was the first, to be fair, and if you come to Blade Runner 2049 without watching the first one, then I can understand the haters.
I can also understand the hate from fans of the first movie, if I'm honest. Here is a film that just couldn't be like the first. Star Wars, Alien, Indiana Jones etc, those products of 70s/80s film phenomenon, have undergone sequels and reboots which have been, largely, poorly remakes/sequels of much loved films. If this has told movie makers anything, it's told them to be fresh. Original. New.
Blade Runner 2049 largely succeeds in doing this by putting a replicant front and centre as the main character; in effect a child in a man's body. This is less a story of love between man and robot as in the first film (or robot and robot) but explicitly the tragedy of playing god, and the creation of slavery. And it does it well. However, it works better when the mini-movies are viewed before the film. I know many people who didn't watch these and so Wallace's motives and actions feel excessive and absurd, and the Sapper's death is meaningless.
It's the norm to put out mini-movies for promotion and add levels of entertainment, but it also disguises flaws in the movie itself. I don't know how the director could have incorporated the Wallace and Sapper scenes into the movie without complicating the timeline, but for me they are important to the storyline. They add context and motive.
Overall, Blade Runner 2049 deserves another viewing by those who hadn't seen the mini-movies beforehand, and think the film is a bad one.
I guess just like the original Blade Runner did.