Gosling Gets in the Way of a Strenuous Movie

Rating: 3/10 (31 December 2017)

I'm one of the few who, despite having a semi-namesake in the original movie, never cared much for it. It's slow pacing, typical "cops and robbers" story mixed with some neat looking props and backgrounds, never did much for me.
The original movie, however, had 2 saving graces that at least put it in a "watchable" category for me - Rutger Hauer and Harrison Ford.
Fast forward to present day and I have another unpopular opinion - Ryan Gosling can't act. He has a range of 2 character types; quiet and brooding and cocky 20-something-year-old. Asking him to go beyond that is too much for him and it shows. He has as much charisma as a day-old sponge and I have yet to see him in any role that made me feel a single thing for any of his characters.
His role as the protagonist in this movie is awkward, at best. You would think that to follow in the footsteps of Harrison Ford, they would have wanted an actor capable of the skill, or at least being 180 degrees different. Instead, Gosling just pulls out more of the same Gosling acting talent and puts on face #2 for this role... which is a lukewarm, less "rough" version of Ford's character from the original. When he finally does meet with Ford's character... there's zero chemistry to be had.
He's in desperate need of a sidekick, comic relief, a mentor, a student... somebody... ANYBODY to take the spotlight off of him and give us some breathing room. He was cast along side Anthony Hopkins in Fractured... and that was, perhaps, his best role, thanks to Hopkins' character. This only proves that Gosling doesn't have the charisma to carry a movie on his own.
Following the story - we have... exposition. Followed by more... exposition. The writer in me screams each time I see an artist with access to moving pictures, use writing to tell their story. A good movie SHOWS you the story, instead of writing it for you.
Then, it can be hit or miss. In some areas, it does this well, introducing areas and characters without writing an entire novel describing them. i like leaving something to the imagination and there are some scenes that do that very well.
The CGI is,of course, CGI. It's difficult to give credit for good computer effects these days; it's like complimenting a person for breathing. The only noticeable attention it gets is the absence of it and either the brilliant use of piratical effects, or the catastrophic lack of. This movie obviously isn't trying to take any chances, so just expect some normal CGI.
Overall, this movie is just a bland, tedious mess of lackluster acting and could-care-less-about characters - whether by design or by accident. If you're hard-core and need to know what happened next in the Blade Runner universe, then I'm sure you'd love this movie... and you wouldn't even bother reading a review that would say otherwise. If you're on the fence about it and either thought the original wasn't that great, or just don't like Gosling... then you're one of the few out there like myself.