When there is no hope

Rating: 10/10 (23 October 2017)

In the original Blade Runner, which was wonderful, Harrison Ford was really just an affable dick, a sort of monovision hired killer cop who slowly came to question his job. My sympathy was not with him but with the replicants he assassinated. And I was mesmerized by the tone and the visuals, dark and filled with pathos.
Jump 35 years and our world is closer to this awful dystopian vision, run by heartless corporations, our planet beginning its death throws. It isn't hard to jump another 35 years and see us arriving somewhere bleak.
Several times I found myself thinking that I'm not sure this future would be a world that would be worth living in at all. Yes, we are adaptable, to our triumph and sorrow, and we can throw out quality of life on a dime if we must. But must we?
The new Blade Runner keeps the tone, which is probably the most important part of this series and of Dick's book, somber, sorrowful, hopeless, bleak, depressing – this is no joy ride.
These are stories about the search for and discovery of something that the central character must have, though they don't even realize they are on a search, but they are. They live in a world with no justice, kindness or hope to it or about it, so what's left, the search for their own humanity, which is ultimately what gives any life its meaning.
The plot is excellent. I won't go into it. There are great performances by Gosling and de Armas but especially by Sylvia Hoeks, who is fabulous in her ability to be dispassionate and intense at the same time. She is a great villain with dead eyes that cry.
Gosling is stunning as always. I felt he actually held his face in a specific way, erasing how sexually appealing he is and replacing that with a "lost, innocent Haley Joel Osment in A.I. quality" that just knocked me flat. Gosling is a fabulous actor. I love how still he can be and then just erupt. Scary.
De Armas is lovely and convincing. Wonderful to watch. There is an extraordinary scene where she melds with a "real" person in a way that is mesmerizing.
I love Ridley Scott. Just love him. So many of his movies are my favorite. I don't know how Denis Villeneuve did it but he created a fantastic movie with the right everything, every bit as good as Scott's original vision but making this his own. I've never seen a movie he directed but he's obviously a master.
The soundtrack can't be overstated for its impact. It's a screeching, scathing scorch of harsh rotting industry, like a dragon machine in death throws, loud loud loud.
Go see it in a big theater now.