Looks great, Dialogue and Story are lousy

Rating: 3/10 (3 June 2018)

I was very excited to see this film. I was under the impression that it was not so much a sequel, but more of a continuation. I was wrong. I wonder now if I should have only given it 2 stars. It is so bad. The good - visually it is stunning.
The dialogue is ridiculous; just laughable. Jared Leto, a fine actor, is given lines that no one could make sound believable. Also isn't his character supposed to be older?
Robin Wright ruins every scene she is in. I don't know if it is the terrible lines she is handed, or the way she mishandles them. She hasn't delivered a performance that hasn't been steeped in self suffering sap in years.
The original was elegant in it's plot development. You had to think, it was a story told in veils. With 2049 we get everything spelled out for us. Points that move the story along are immediately revealed, usually in a clumsy fashion.
This sequel has 'Hollywood' stamped all over it: trying to cover every base, and please every demographic, offend no one for heaven's sake, and therefore saying absolutely nothing.
I have since rewatched it, and maybe the second half is a bit better; (except for plot holes) mainly because it features Gosling and Ford.