Blade Crawler

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2018)

Plot; Officer K, a Blade Runner tasked with tracking down Replicants, begins to unravel a mystery that could shake a fragile society to its very foundation.
The original Blade Runner is not an action film in even the loosest sense of the term, but it's also not a deep, meditative think piece. It's more of a tone poem; a dazzling marriage of music and visuals that move and evoke. Oh it has ideas, but it's no philosophical treatise. Blade Runner 2049 fancies itself a bit deeper than its predecessor, and to prove it, it goes on for over a half hour longer. In the end, I don't think it digs any deeper into its themes, and its impact is undermined by glacial pacing and a bloated run time.
As far as the visuals, 2049 is the original's equal and then some. With a more diverse environmental palate at its disposal, it's utterly immersive and a wonder to behold. The score is a strong supporter in creating the mood, but it lacks the signature cues of Vangelis' iconic work. The cast do solid work. It takes a special talent to played muted without being boring, and for the most part they achieve that here.
The last act of the film picks up a head of steam, culminating in an impactful and emotionally satisfying conclusion. If they'd somehow managed to trim some of the fat while also putting a bit more meat on its bones, this could very well have been a classic. As it stands, it's a film of tremendous technical merit too often undermined by a thin story stretched to and well past its breaking point.