I'm still conflicted about this wonderfully dark movie and that's okay,

Rating: 9/10 (15 June 2018)

I wasn't a fan of the first Blade Runner. The context was too ambiguous, the rules and customs of the mythos too dark and too mysterious, the characters impenetrable. What even ARE "Replicants"? This was a question "Blade Runner" never really answered. Are they robots? Are they people? Are they mutated humans? Deckard has long conversations with Rachel, a Replicant he's in love with, I didn't quite know how to take that. Was Rachel just a very sophisticated robot, a hybrid, or human? If Replicants are just "genetically engineered humans" why do they have no rights and no social status? Is Deckard even human, and if so, what's he doing falling in love with a being he's supposed to be in charge of "retiring"?
"Blade Runner 2049" answers none of those questions, and in fact raises even more - but I loved it anyway. Despite not really being a satisfying depiction of the world of "Blade Runner", this movie works. There is of course, lots of things wrong with this movie that kept this film from being a box office hit. But I have to admire Ridley Scott and company for not taking the easy route and just making a dumbed-down film just to make a blockbuster. This movie had a whole lot of thought behind it, and it shows in the pacing and deliberately murky story. The movie raises a whole bunch of questions yet answers only a few of them - the rest is left to your imagination, and a few small clues you can glean from the minimalist dialogue.
I can't describe it any better then the other people have already done - but I'll add that this is a movie you have to be in just the right mood to appreciate. "BR 2049" does a whole lot with very little - so little it is downright frustrating at times - and leaves the story wide open for another sequel. Unfortunately, we may never get it - but if Ridley sees fit to make another I'll be first in line to see it. Once seen, the world of "Blade Runner" is not easy to forget.