A really good sequel

Rating: 9/10 (5 November 2017)

In order to judge a film, you compare the direction, the acting, the story and the production values to similar movies from the same category. How nice that we have just such movie in the original Blade Runner. On each of the above metrics, this is a much better film.
One of the few things that Blade Runner had better than the sequel is the supporting characters. As Deckard goes around following replicants and growing as a character, so do the replicants themselves. In the sequel, Ryan Gosling does an amazing job, but the focus is mostly on him and very little on the other characters. That's not to subtract from Ana de Armas' acting, which proves (again?) that she is the perfect woman in every respect. And if the original film had to invent the visuals and even explored the world a bit, 2049 does little to improve on that, even takes some away (only a few scenes have more people and vehicles at the same time, the rest being ridiculously empty for something that should happen in the future, for example).
Acting is great, direction is great, the visuals are impressive - and this is one of the few movies I believe are worth going for in the cinema or at least having a nice sound system at home when you watch it - the story is both intriguing and well paced, the sound and mood are perfect.
Perhaps the villains are the ones that are the least interesting; they almost hurt the movie. I can't explain it without spoiling too much, but at some time there are two factions that kind of want the same thing, but act like bitter enemies. There is a scene where Edward James Olmos is brought in for nothing other than nostalgia and Dave Bautista may not be the greatest actor in the world, but what was he doing in just a few scenes? Did he ask to be put in the film because he loved Blade Runner? And Jared Leto... I believe he terrorized his mates with this method acting a lot more than he actually acted on screen!
Bottom line: I think it is important to watch the first Blade Runner before you watch this. Don't even rely on memory, just rewatch the original first, then see this one. An almost perfect film that makes you feel something other than ear pain from explosion sounds. Plus it has a sexy scene with Ana de Armas and Mackenzie Davis overlapping. That's got to be worth going to watch the movie in full 3D!