So 35 years of wait is finally over... Was it worth the wait???

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2017)

This is my updated review as I feel I did not do the movie justice and I have also increased my score of the movie...
I was one of the lucky ones who got to see an early preview.... And the more that time passes by and the more the story of Blade Runner 2049 sinks in the more the gravity of the story hits me... First of all it really was not what I was expecting... I had watched many trailers and interviews and I feel like I had done quite a successful job in staying away from spoilers....
And....
Without spoiling it for anyone else and giving too much away.... Whatever you think you know about the film... well, forget it.... You're way off the mark...
The best advice I can give though is however dark you think Blade Runner 2049 is.... It's darker than that.... It's much darker than the original... And the original was quite dark.... The cinematography is beautiful... it really is stunning... but the film itself.... did I mention it was dark??.. I think this is amplified (excuse the pun) by the movie's soundtrack... The work of Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch was for me... at times.... malevolent... And perhaps if the music wasn't so dark and hostile the movie itself wouldn't come across like that also... But then what do I know?... That's not to say the music is bad... It was for me.... like I said malevolent.... As for the movie itself... Again without giving too much away.... It's a story of loneliness.... A story of wanting nothing more than to be accepted... It's a story of desperate hope and anguish... Wanting for a better life.... Replicants being more human than humans, being more perfect than humans.... but not being human and wanting nothing more than to be human... even for all the faults the human race has and the perfection of the replicant race... Still the desperate hope and anguish of wanting to be human.... Are you keeping up??... And this whole time living in a dystopian world.... where the future of the human race is a lost cause and Mother Earth has never looked so heartbroken....
Speaking of heartbreak... again without spoiling the story... be prepared... the whole story is a story of heartbreak and literally at every turn Ryan Gosling is having his heart broken.... whether that be his relationships with others or his life in general... For me Ryan Gosling has a knack of playing the lonely leading role... and he has done this on a few occasions now.... both in the movies - "Drive" and "Only God Forgives".... which I hope he doesn't end up being typecast in... but saying that... I don't think there is an actor alive today who can play the role of being totally isolated from the rest of the world better than Ryan Gosling.
Blade Runner 2049 did have some nice surprises... which again... I won't spoil...
In closing.... Ryan Gosling is excellent... It is Harrison Ford's best work for years.... This overall review may sound like I'm being negative about Blade Runner 2049... But I'm not... I'm really not...
I should also mention the performances from the female leading acts in the show. Ana de Armas, Robin Wright and Sylvia Hoeks are all very, very good and each and every one of them. Including all the crew should be proud of such a beautiful sequel.
As for where it stands next to the original... I never thought I'd hear myself saying this but I think as years pass by it will stand next to the original Blade Runner quite easily.... It's not the same movie as the original but it is as good as the original in its own right...
I think Ryan Gosling said it best in an interview
The film is incredible... it's.... haunting...
With this in mind a few days have passed now and I am still left with a feeling of being haunted by Blade Runner 2049....
So much so that I want to see it again and I will go and see it again... and again... and again....
Just like I did the original...
Blade Runner 2049 "is" incredible....
It's...
Haunting