Certainly Beautiful, but What Else?

Rating: 5/10 (13 October 2017)

This film is breathtaking in its slow minimalist artistic shots combined with a wonderful soundtrack, and it knows it. It works that to its advantage, like a beautiful bimbo at a Las Vegas strip club, but 2 hours and 40 minutes are a bit of a stretch to spend in that company. You soon realize that there's little else beneath the surface, that your mind is always at least one step ahead of the plot instead of trying to keep up with it, and that the film is using cheap emotional tactics which is a real shame considering they weren't necessary in the 1980's. The real shame is when you realize that the 1980's version holds its ground even when it comes to cinematography.
The first hour and a half are devoted to invoking empathy for the subservient existence of new replicants. At some point it's a bit too in-your-face, and any intelligent audience would agree that here in 2017 we shouldn't need constant reminders about why dehumanizing humanoids is painful. From then we take painfully slow steps to uncovering the single mystery our replicant is in charge of.
It is disappointing how many missed opportunities there are for a true, multicultural, futuristic, populous society and some fast, wowing action scenes. Our protagonist is - granted - a simple guy, but with exquisitely prehistoric tastes in his ladies (read 40's doting housewives). I think suggesting that even the most under educated of males would desire that type of partner in the 2020's is setting women's lib behind a lot. I am all for equality, and a man is free to desire a dumb slave if that is what he wants, but the protagonist of this franchise and in a romantic way? Hell no.
Also, I do not recall any scenes where he is mingling with a multicultural crowd or even if there are more than one flying cars in the environment, which is an outright sin.
Being a recent devotee of cyberpunk, I wanted to love this film. I wanted to feel the leap we have made in 3 decades. The leap, however, seems to be entirely superficial, with maximum focus on the visuals and sound, and otherwise assuming that your audience are a bunch of pre-pubescent kids who need everything spelled out for them and long periods without fast action to huddle and whisper about the plot. I have set up the original Blade Runner in my DVD player now, and am buckled up for an actual good time.