Visually impressive, but a difficult watch

Rating: 3/10 (11 October 2017)

It was difficult to rate this film as it is visually very impressive and the story, though not particularly good, did keep my interest through the whole 2hrs 45mins. The low score is given for a total lack of character connection, me to them, or even them to each other. The first Bladerunner film has lots of interesting character relationships: Rachael & Deckard (love) Roy & Paris (friendship, mourning) Pris & JF Sebastian (friendship, pity, kindness) Leon & Roy (comrades, friendship, leadership) Tyrell & JF Sebastian (companionship) And of course the brief but evocative kinship between Deckard and Roy at the end of Roys life. This film is devoid of character relationships, most of the characters seem to exist as individual unconnected entities and that just does not work for a film. There is only one interesting relationship in Bladerunner 2049 - that between K and Joi, a genuinely interesting connection that makes their scenes together the best scenes in the film. Without character connections the film has no grasp on your emotions and is actually quite depressing to watch. The story though interesting, develops very slowly, I was expecting some big twist that never came. I can't blame the actors for this disappointing film as they have to try to act in a vacuum, apart from Jared Leto, who is just awful. I'd also have to say that the visual effects start to wear thin after a couple of hours, there's only so many dark shadows/ stripy shadows/ reflections of light from water/ more reflections of light on water / more reflections of light on water I can watch without it getting quite formulaic and repetitive. P.s. the film was criticised for not having strong female characters but this is not really true, I would say 3 of the 4 main characters are female.