Better than I had feared, not as good as I had hoped

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2017)

I'm a huge fan of the original Blade Runner movie and the Philip K. Dick book it was based on, so it was with some trepidation that I went to see the sequel. But the film lived up to my expectations, even if they weren't all that high.
On the plus side:

The sequel does a great job of recreating the look, feel and grit of the first movie. It looks amazing.

The soundtrack music also does a great job of imitating the first film's score, while also sounding more modern.

The plot follows logically (sort of) from the first movie, but you don't necessarily have to have seen the first one to follow this one. On the other hand, the movie doesn't spoon-feed the audience, and I overheard a couple people at my showing who had no idea what was going on.

The film raises a lot of thought-provoking, sci-fi type questions. Just like the first movie, a major theme is "what exactly is real, and what rights do intelligent 'artificial' beings deserve"? Some of the new elements in this one seem like they could have come out of a Philip K. Dick story.

On the negative side:

The movie is waaaaaaaaay too long. I have a decent attention span, and even I thought the movie dragged. It seemed like half the film played out in slow motion. It made 2001 A Space Odyssey (another film I love, but one of the most deliberately paced movies of all time) look like a taut action thriller. They took an idea that would have made a good hour long TV show and stretched it out to nearly three hours. Way too long.

The plot, what there is of one, is...kind of hard to buy into. Months ago I saw someone on a movie discussion group predict pretty much exactly what the plot turned out to be, and he was told by everyone else that his idea was ridiculous.

The movie redefines what a replicant is, although the ones in this film are later generations than the ones in the first film, so I can kind of give them a pass there.

Seemed like there was a gratuitous amount of female nudity. I'm not complaining really, it just seemed like most of it didn't need to be there.

Overall I liked the movie. I'll probably watch it again when it comes out on Blu-ray. But it's not really the type of movie that the commercials and trailers are pitching it as, and I'm guessing there will be a lot of negative reviews from people who were expecting more car chases and fight scenes. There's not nearly as much action as the first movie.
Oh, and it seems like the last half hour or so is designed to set up more sequels in the future. Which would be cool, but for God's sake pick up the pace on the next one.