A surprisingly strong sequel

Rating: 9/10 (23 October 2017)

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" - part of P.K. Dick's incredible legacy, became the inspiration Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which ranks with Metropolis, Forbidden Planet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the most important SF films of all time. Combining Dick's ideas with a technical and artistic mastery created a movie that is watchable over and over for the richness of its details and the poetry of its dialogue. Sequels rarely live up to the original. So, it was with great trepidation that I went to see a sequel of such a masterpiece. I am happy to say that although Blade Runner 2049 doesn't reach the level of the original, it is an excellent film in its own right, as well as a sequel done right. With a myriad of subtle references to the original -in music, visually, and obviously plot, this movie is thoroughly enjoyable by those who intimately know the original and those who don't. You could probably even watch them in reverse order without losing much. Set 30 years in the future from the original and made 35 years later, the aging actors fit the sequel perfectly, The evolution of the setting in California fits the logical conclusions of the original. The evolution of the Replicants also fits perfectly. Most surprisingly, this is not just a rehash of the same ideas, but an extension of the problem of human vs "more human than human" and how the two will interact. The only reason I don't give it a 10 is that there is no "11" for the original.