This film was wayyy tooo long yet pretty good too!

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2018)

Director Denis Villeneuve can be an utter genius at times. In a decade or two, he will be regarded as one of the greats because the way he presents the visuals in his films are pretty amazing and off the charts compared to other filmmakers. But I do have alot of concerns with this film as well. First of all, the "villains." I say villains with quotation marks because technically, the Blade Runner film isn't suppose to have a "classic" villain who represents the darker extreme of black-and-white, good-and-evil dichotomy, yet nevertheless, the "villains" in this film who are depicted by actors/actresses such as Jared Leto and Sylvia Hoeks are honestly flat-out sad. I know people rave about Jared Leto's acting skills, but like many good actors, in order for their skills to shine, the director has to put them in a situation where their skills can really come to a life of their own. It's only on or two actors in a generation who truly have the ability to act well in any given situation. Unfortunately, Jared Leto is not one of them, and as a result, the film Blade Runner 2049 suffers. As for Sylvia Hoeks, she's just a bad actress overall. Her acting skills reminded me of that of Milla Jovovich in that God-awful movie Ultraviolet. A real cancer to the eyes. Despite these shortcomings, the movie really has a "flavor" of its own as put on by the visual menagerie at the courtesy of its director Denis Villeneuve. I'll tell you one thing though. The visuals can be so enriched with artistic panache that they come off as really unrealistic (I mean wtf was all that human statue stuff and the bees doing there?) that it really takes you out of the whole film. And the pacing as well. There's a scene where someone finally gets to met another so-and-so and the pacing JUST. DRAG. ON. The scene that ensues after that as well in this dark, flashing place with Elvis in the background as well. Why make the pacing of the film just utterly cancerous for the viewer? Might as well take us out to the back parking lot of the theatre, tie us up onto a wooden plank and waterboard us for the next half-an-hour. But other than those snafu's, the film is pretty good, is visually stunning, has amazing acting bu competent actors and actresses (referring to Ryan Gosling, Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas, and Carla Juri. Good job you guys!), and invites the viewer to ask pretty profound questions, hence the 8 stars.