Over-hyped, not nearly as good as the original

Rating: 6/10 (10 October 2017)

It's not bad, mind you. It's OK. But, basically everything is worse than the original. Even the visuals, which are of much higher fidelity, still don't work as well as the visuals of the original.
But, the most important distinctive features of the original, the music and Rutger Hauer with his exceptional ending monologue, are the biggest difference, as there's nothing that comes near it in BR2049.
Other than that, the story and the characters are simply not as interesting as the original. The new ideas (like the shift from human vs replicant focus to biologic(human/replicant) vs artificial (AI)): again, not as interesting.
If you're a fan of Edward James Olmos, you'll be glad to see him, only to be disappointed very quickly, as his cameo is very short and more-or-less pointless.
And yes... it's waaay too long. Not only in the first half. Right up to the very end. It doesn't really have that much to say.
On the flip side, Ford finally plays someone his own age (he was playing the "I'm not so old" guy way too long) and does a decent job of it. The "hey, it seems possible Deckard is a replicant, but, it actually doesn't matter" feel that you get from watching BR2049 is also an improvement over the original which has two cuts which show different stories in this regard (and distract the audience from other things that do matter).
So, this is a strange mix. Although the story is a decent (if less interesting) continuation of the original, the movie as a whole isn't. That is, you're probably better of not watching it, it might spoil the experience. As a stand-alone movie, too many things in the movie seem to be too unconnected to its story (like "why should we care"), so, it doesn't stand well enough on its own feet.