Pale shadow of the original

Rating: 6/10 (6 October 2017)

Great opening, beautiful imagery, powerful and emotive soundtrack. What could go wrong? Well...
Pedestrian script. None of the truly existential and thought provoking story from the original. The characters were mostly one- dimensional, never surprising (none like Roy Batty, mass-murderer who in his final moments saves the life of the man who hunted and killed all the people he cared about). To be fair there were some interesting interactions, but they were few and far between.
Where the beautiful scenes of the original were poignant and well paced, the sequel dragged them out to the point of being ponderous. I actually started shuffling in my seat through a couple of the particularly drawn-out ones (note: I NEVER shuffle).
A lot of "huh?" moments - like when Ryan Gosling's replicant runs through a 6-inch thick concrete wall. While they are tough they are still flesh, blood and bone - not the Terminator (for reference Roy Batty stuck his head through a plaster wall that was tiled - still tough, but physically possible). There were a number of other scenes that were not believable or where actions seemed unnecessary (sorry I didn't want to include spoilers).
In a nutshell, it's an "ok" movie that could be drastically improved with some vigorous editing. Unfortunately the mediocre script and story will ultimately stop it from ever becoming a classic like the original.