Blade Runner 2049

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2017)

The original Blade Runner is one of the finest films of the 1980s, so expectations were high when a sequel was being released 35 years later, I was certainly excited, produced by original director Sir Ridley Scott, directed by BAFTA nominated Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival). Basically in the 2049, bio-engineered humans called replicants are now part of society, working as servants and slaves, a newer replicant model named 'K' (Ryan Gosling) has been created to work for the LAPD as a "blade runner". K's job is to hunting down and "retire" older rogue model replicants, his home life is spent with his girlfriend, a holographic artificial intelligence product of Wallace Corporation, named Joi (Ana de Armas). K is investigating the growing replicant freedom movement, this leads him to a farm, there he retires rogue replicant Sapper Morton (Spectre's Dave Bautista), he also finds a small box buried under a tree. Forensic analysis reveals that the box contains the remains of a female replicant who died after complications from an emergency cesarean section, this is shocking as it was thought impossible for a female replicant to become pregnant. K's superior Lieutenant Joshi (Robin Wright) believes that knowledge of a replicants that can reproduce would be dangerous and could lead to war, she orders that all evidence is destroyed and that K finds and kills the child. K is disturbed by his orders to kill a born individual, he visits the headquarters of Wallace Corporation founder Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), there the body is identified as experimental replicant Rachael (Sean Young), K also learns about Rachael's romantic ties with former veteran blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Wallace believes that reproduction in replicants can expand his off-world operations, but he lacks this technology himself, so he sends his replicant enforcer Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) to steal Rachael's remains from LAPD headquarters and follow K to find Rachael's child. K returns to Morton's farm to destroy it, there he finds a hidden date, it matches one of his own childhood memories about hiding a toy horse, Joi insists this is coincidence, and evidence that K is in fact human. K searches the birth records for the date, he discovers that twins were born on that day with identical DNA, but one was a girl and one was a boy, only the boy is listed as alive. K tracks the child to an orphanage in ruined San Diego, but the relevant records have been stolen, he recognises the orphanage from his childhood and finds his hidden toy horse, this suggests his memories, which he thought were merely implants, may be real. K next visits memory designer Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri), she tells him it is illegal to program replicants with real human memories, K is lead to believe he is Rachael's son. When he returns to headquarters and fails a replicant behaviour test, K tells Joi that he failed because he completed his mission and killed the child, Joshi gives him 48 hours to disappear. K transfers Joi to a mobile emitter, but he risks erasing her if it is damaged, undeterred he has the toy horse analysed, traces of radiation found on it lead him to the ruins of Las Vegas. There he finds Rick Deckard in a deserted hotel and casino, Deckard explains that he stole the orphanage records to cover his tracks, and was forced to leave a pregnant Rachael behind. Luv and her men track K's location and arrive to kidnap Deckard, K is injured and left for dead, and Joi's emitter is destroyed, she is erased, the replicant freedom movement were also tracking, they rescue K. Movement leader Freysa (Hiam Abbass) tells K that he is wrong to think he has a unique role to fulfil in the movement, Rachael's surviving child is actually a girl, K deduces that Deckard's daughter is Stelline, as she is the only one capable of creating the memory and implanting it into him. Freysa urges K to prevent Wallace from uncovering the secrets of replicant reproduction, and killing Deckard, meanwhile in Los Angeles, Deckard is brought before Wallace, he suggests that Rachael's feelings for him were engineered by Tyrell to test the possibility of a replicant becoming pregnant. Deckard refuses to cooperate, so Wallace orders Luv to escort him off-world to be tortured for information, K intercepts them, he fights with and kills Luv, Deckard is rescued, the crash is staged as his death, to protect him from Wallace and the replicants. In the end, K takes Deckard to see Stelline, he laments that his best memories belong to her, K succumbs to his wounds and lies dying in the snow, while Deckard enters Stelline's office cautiously to approach his long lost daughter. Also starring Mackenzie Davis as Mariette, Lennie James as Mister Cotton, Barkhad Abdi as Doc Badger, David Dastmalchian as Coco, Edward James Olmos as Gaff and Mark Arnold as Interviewer. Gosling gives a great performance as the almost emotionless new blade runner bot investigating and finding out about himself, it takes a long while for Ford to come on, but once he does he is great, and there is good support from the likes of Wright and Leto. This is definitely a spectacle for the eyes, seeing on a massive IMAX screen in 3D definitely helped, I will admit it is very long, 15 minutes short of 3 hours, with some slow scenes, but at the same time, the film is good as taking it's time, the special effects to create the technological beings and cityscapes are brilliant, the story is interesting, and there are some gripping and intriguing scenes, overall it is a satisfying science-fiction thriller. It won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects, and it was nominated for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Production Design, and it won the BAFTA for Best Cinematography and Best Special Visual Effects, and it was nominated the Best Production Design, Original Music for Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer, Best Sound, Best Editing and Best Make Up/Hair. Very good!