Sci-fi cinematic perfection.

Rating: 10/10 (22 April 2018)

Given my deep-seated love for Ridley Scot's seminal '82 sci-fi noir classic, Blade Runner, I was over the moon when I heard a sequel was being made and when the first trailer dropped, I grew even more excited about seeing the movie, so I went to my local movie theater with a few friends and sat down to watch it. Once the film ended, I was left in awe and puzzlement at what I had just watched and after doing some deep thinking, I understood what the movie was doing and conveying to me. From it's themes and visual look to it's acting and musical score, Blade Runner 2049 is a wondrous work of modern sci-fi that doesn't pander to or take down to it's audience.
The movie takes place in Los Angeles in the year 2049 and follows a replicant named K works for the Los Angeles police department as a officer or "blade runner" who hunts down and murders replicants that have gone bad. After retiring a replicant named Sapper Morton, K discovers a box entombed under a tree. Inside are the remains of a women replicant who died during a C-section, showing that they can reproduce, something that is thought to have been impossible. K then visits his superior and informs her of his discovery, she is worried that this could lead to war between the two races and commands K to find and destroy the child to bury the truth Along the way, K pays a visit to the Wallace Corporation head office where the dead replicant is identified as Rachel, the romantic interest of former blade runner, Rick Deckard. Now, as K begins to put the pieces together, he must enlist the help of Deckard to assist him in uncovering the hidden truth before society falls apart.
While my love for Blade Runner came from watching it several times over many years and a whole lot of understanding what the movie was saying to me and deep thinking on what certain things meant, I came to realize just how much of an artistic impactful Blade Runner had on the genre of sci-fi as a whole and how it altered filmmaking as we know it and due to that, the movie has been seen a masterwork of cinema which is why it's so important to watch the first movie before you watch Blade Runner 2049 not just because it'll be difficult to follow what's going on but also because of Blade Runner's importance and how it shapes 2049 and turns it into one of the best-made movies of the decade and one of the best sequels I've ever had the pleasure of watching.
While this movie may not float ever moviegoers boat, it would be impossible for even a casual movie fan to not be blown away by what Denis Villeneuve has given us or how significant the film will become in the future even if some viewers will find the movie boring, lacking any action, witty dialog or bizarre aliens while others love the movie for what it is and what it's telling them. The movie is gloomy, perplexing, bleak, miserable, dismal and empty, set in a future where humanity is clinging on while on the brink of catastrophe so while the movie might be a bit depressing, it's so cleverly put together by Villeneuve and his team that the only other filmmaker that did something on that scale was Stanley Kubrick and given how many of his movies have been despised by so many when they were first released such as 2001: A Space Odyssey which is a perfect example of this as it has magnificent visuals, but it failed hard with a lot of moviegoers and professional critics back in '68, but Kubrick always did what he did best by establishing a second thought in the viewer's head as many left the theaters feeling baffled and even a bit down-beat, but the film sowed the seeds in people's minds that eventually grew over the years. The first Blade Runner archived this to perfection and Blade Runner 2049 is no different. The movie will definitely live on as one of the crowning achievements in the world of sci-fi movies and will continue to be explained, evaluated and talked about for decades to come.
Now while the story does carry on from the first movie, it manages to stand on it's own two feet and tell it's own story that does directly link up with the first movie but doesn't rehash the plot of it instead opting for a genuine follow-up set within the same universe. Much like the first one, Blade Runner 2049 is a artistic film encased in a tomb of atmosphere and while several other movies have addressed the issue of what it means to be human and our humanity, there are only been a few that have been able to tackle the subject as well as Blade Runner 2049, but it doesn't stop there. When the viewer begins to explore the themes of both Blade Runner movies, they discover certain allegories, motifs and clear jabs at racism, sexism, exclusiveness and commercialism as well as the misuse of the world's natural resources and neglect of the environment, breach of a person's privacy, disregard for those around us, extortion of the police force and the corruption of power in our government. It's a terrifying sight of what we could become in the future, at our individuality, at our worries from prejudice to temporary insanity to fears that haven't even been named yet but the viewer may also find brilliance, artistic feelings, virtuousness, and the need for compassion and fond memories when watching the film, all that is lost like tears in the rain.
The pacing of the movie may be slow but there's a reason for that so the viewer has time to take in all the eye candy and all the symbolism being fed to them while the music, sound and the visuals keeps you focused on what's going on onscreen. While the story of 2049 continues on from the first movie, it grants us a much more diversified glance at what's outside the metropolitan waste-cage and the clamp of overpopulation but there's no change to be found outside of the cities as it still feels like an empty and lonely place even without hordes of people. The bleak desert sands, the enraged ocean waters, the garbage piles of San Diego and the immoral ruins of Las Vegas certainly don't feel any better and yet you are pulled in by it all as your eyes take all the visual splendor one frame at a time. The attack on personal space, unchecked commercial advertising and decadence sticks to the viewer like tar and is set in a blatant comparison with an apparent loneliness on the outside, not enhanced nor inferior, and all connected with superb sounds. Both Blade Runner films feel like an on-going clash between flawlessness and faultiness: our battle to build an ideal world for ourselves leads to a world that is clearly flawed as this is a world created on precarious ground composed of natural, intellectual, scientific, and mechanical disgraces, the kinds we tend to not notch or pretend aren't there. Watch this movie and the viewer soon finds themselves covered by feelings that miss the mark or don't come out right: suffering a nervous breakdown, passing away, decaying, feeling damaged, scraped or kicked around are all feelings shown in the movie and reflect what we as human are and how the future will effect us.
When it comes to the filmmaking side of things, Blade Runner 2049 is nothing short of majestic. Denis Villeneuve who also directed Arrival and Sicario goes above and beyond with this movie, giving the viewer a deeply thought-provoking and gorgeous film that carries on from what the first movie set up and improves on it in every single way, in fact, I would place Villeneuve right up with Nolan, Coppola, Kubrick and Spielberg in the near future. The screenplay by Michael Green and Hampton Fancher is superb and emotional in its execution while allowing the story to go in new areas but without losing sight of what made the first one so wonderful in the first place. The photography and the visual look of the movie is amazing thanks to Roger Deakins who has already left his creative mark on such movies as Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall and The Big Lebowski just to name a few. The various settings all look different and provides the exposition though the visuals rather than just dumping it on the audience and the cinematography is key to telling that aspect of the story as everything looks absolutely stunning from the drizzly city streets and the eerily dirty landscapes to the snowy locales yet they never like they're part of the actual movie but instead part of a bigger world. As for the visual effects, they are just as spectacular as a mix of both real and CGI effects was used to create the world of the futuristic Los Angeles and it works incredibly beautiful when paired with the excellent production design, it truly does show the time, effort and care that was put into making the effects look as believable as possible and they look absolutely fantastic when they are seen on screen. Much like what Vangelis did for the first Blade Runner in terms of the musical score, the score for Blade Runner 2049 is just as perfect if not superior thanks to the composing talents of Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch. Their gloomy yet amazingly heart-pounding score fittingly mirrors the themes and tracks that Vangelis used in the first movie while developing a soundtrack that has the complexities worthy of such a movie. In addition, while the musical score to the first movie can be repeated and listened to without having to see the movie, the score for 2049 is so thickly interlinked into the film that it's impossible to have the same replay mentality as the first one. The computerized and manufactured characteristics of the score builds on the wild shock of the human aspect on the Earth long before any of the visuals kick in. Another accomplishment in terms of the film's musical score is the creepy usage of a short but familiar fragment from Peter and The Wolf which adds to the dreariness and bleakness of the movie and disjointed songs by Sinatra and Elvis are just as frightening and exotic when set against the apocalyptic landscapes. Truly one of the clowning achievements of film scores in the last decade.
When it comes to the acting, it