Dreamlike

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2019)

This movie is essentially a big budget arthouse film. It is not a big budget 12-rated action film that is trying to set up a huge franchise with 38 sequels and spin-offs, with a vast dependence on visual effects, explosions and loud sound effects, stuff we've seen a gazillion times. This is a single film, rated 15, with one story and an awful lot of intelligence and creativity put into making it.
Denis Villeneuve might be one of my all time favourite directors. Before this he also directed Prisoners (one of my favourite films of the decade), Sicario and Arrival (both of which I love). His talent shines through in this masterfully crafted film where the editing is slow paced enough to allow us to soak up the beautiful cinematography from Roger Deakins (this guy has been nominated for thirteen Oscars without a SINGLE WIN, somebody give him one! Where are his memes???) and incredible production design and at same time enabling us to get invested in the suspense and drama of the various scenes that are shown. This slow pacing may turn some viewers off, but I honestly can't imagine this film without it. There were quite alot of scenes that felt very uncomfortable to look at but they were so beautifully shot that it was impossible to look away (as I said, don't go into this expecting a dumb fun film). The action sequences felt very well choreographed and a joy to watch.
The acting is really good. Ryan Gosling pulls off probably the best performance of his career in my opinion. His character is just one that is lacking in emotion but at the same you can decipher every single emotion his character is repressing. He even has one freak out scene that feels very genuine and intense in the levels of panic that he is displaying. Harrison Ford is also great, some of his line delivery is not Oscar worthy but I still like his performance because you can feel the pain that his character has experienced since the last film and his presence was called for. Jared Leto makes an interesting villain. He's not in the film for that long but I thought he left quite an impact.
The story and writing were also great. I was genuinely invested in the mystery that K had to go through and was curious as to where it would lead to with alot of drama and suspense occuring along the way. The story did a crazily good thing of making you believe that it is going to go down a cliched path but instead doing a complete 180 on that by adding an interesting twist. There was also a relationship that was shown between K and another character that I thought was excellently written and was helped brought to life with incredible visual effects.
Blade Runner 2049 is an incredible sequel that I am convinced is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. It has perfect directing, writing, acting, visual effects, cinematography and production design. Do yourself a favour and give it a watch, I know that I am going to see it again.. I don't do ratings out of 10 anymore but I am almost certain that in a few months time I will look back on this as a perfect 10.