Yes, no, maybe

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2018)

BLADERUNNER: 2049; was it good, bad or in between? All three. Cinema goers were disappointed in 1982 because Harrison Ford was famous from Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) so they were expecting a sci-fi Indiana Jones. Instead they got a slow, boring, half-baked detective story. And they got a visual/sensory feast; design...sets...costumes... Vangelis's music, poetic scriptwritng from co-writer David Peoples, beautiful photography from Jordan Cronenworth; a potentially oppressive film managed to be awesome and uplifting; Ridley Scott put so much wonderful attention into detail; he helmed a production values landmark that would influence sci-fi for years to come; a futuristic Los Angeles that was believable whereas in the hands of another director might've been a disaster. But Ridley Scott's prophetic vision of the future neglected good story telling and audience engagement and subsequently it flopped at the box office; I vaguely remember being 7 and watching Bladerunner at the cinema; sensing the disappointment amongst my family and the rest of the audience as we sat through this striking but unexciting work of art. Watched it about 8 yrs later on VHS and fell in love with it; was obsessed by it; yep, the original cinema-voiceover version. Then the directors cut came out in 1993 (no voiceover, no happy ending with aerial shots/outtakes from 'The Shining' and unlike the 1982 version the directors cut suggested Deckard's a replicant). I preferred the 1982 version. And that's a problem with Bladerunner; I don't care if Deckard's a replicant! I don't care if Officer K's a replicant; it doesn't add anything! Why can't Bladerunner's Deckard and Officer K (Ryan Gosling) be humans who have a moral dilemma? Their job's to hunt 'n kill ('retire') replicants; they're not supposed to feel empathy, but replicants are so much like humans that Deckard and K have pangs of conscience; replicants retiring replicants should've been profound but the profundity isn't there (unlike in say 'The Grey Zone' where Jews help exterminate Jews). Bladerunner: 2049 got ideas from 'Her' (2013); it revolves in part around Officer K's relationship with a hologram girl (Ana de Armas) who at one point wants to make it real so they get a hooker to come to K's apartment and the hooker stands in for the holgram; very much like 'Her' i.e. Theodore has a relationship with his artificial intelligence assistant/OS1 operating system (a voice named Samantha) who gets a hooker to come to Theodore's apartment. Still working on this...