A soulless, bland copy of the masterpiece that was the original

Rating: 3/10 (16 October 2017)

Blade Runner is one of my favorite films of all time for a number of reasons:
1) Amazing groundbreaking trailblazing visuals that spawned an entire genre (aka "cyberpunk").
2) Superb music by Vangelis that is integral to the film.
3) Great characters and amazing acting.
4) Underlying philosophical themes of corporate oppression (Blade Runner is just a small cog in a huge machine just carrying on with his life doing the job because otherwise he's reduced to nothing), existentialism (what it means to be human) coupled with Biblical references presented in a subtle way.
5) Amazing practical special effects that make the world around the characters feel lived-in.
6) Meticulous attention to detail, lighting in particular.
While "2049" is nothing more than a mere attempt at recreating something in the style of the original by a studio committee ticking off the items in the checklist. The result is abysmal because it does not introduce something new in terms of visual design, interesting characters, music or story. On the contrary it tries so hard to tie itself to the original it's sickening. Call it fan-service or pandering, either way it leads to the movie being a highly derivative product that exists solely because of the original.
1) Plot lines that go against the premise of the original (Nexus 6 being able to reproduce, new Nexus 8 being easily distinguishable from humans) are stupid.
2) Acting is horrendous. Ana "Pouty lips" De Armas couldn't hold a candle to Sean Young not to mention the pretentious for pretentiousness sake Jared Leto. Ford is here for a paycheck and Gosling is deliberately one-note.
3) The music is a lame attempt at copying Vangelis' beautiful score.
4) Too varying visuals leave you with this feeling of an inconsistent world that doesn't follow the idea of polluted lifeless post-industrial world where the sun doesn't shine, it's constantly raining and the only light outside the building is that of the advertising that seems more real than anything else.
5) Running time. The original was purposefully slow while the overblown running time of the sequel comes off as director loving certain sets and trying to savor them far longer than he should've.
6) A myriad of logical mistakes and plot holes (kids with a 100% matching DNA are of different gender).
7) The opening shot with the closeup of an eye is almost beat for beat with the original.
8) The zooming sequence is hammered home by the sheer repetition.
9) The characters are bland, unoriginal and politically correct female copies of the originals, namely Madam and Luv.
10) The opening sequence is the unused part of the Fancher's script (watch Dangerous Days documentary).
Overall it seems that producers/writers have an erroneous idea of made the original film great. As if stuffing Biblical references into Neon- lit set pieces, inhabited by some pale copies of original characters and extending the awkward silences would amount to a great movie.
To sum up "Blade Runner 2049" does not reinvent the wheel, does not offer anything one-of-a-kind or even slightly memorable. There is no reason (other than cash flow for the studio execs) for it to exist. Save the cash and rewatch the original that actually challenges your intelligence and leaves you with a lot to think about.