Worthy, daring, and able to stand on its own. This is how a sequel should be done.

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2017)

***Contains Spoilers***
First off, this is definitely a film that must be experienced at the cinema. The visuals (evidently great right from the trailer) literally took my breath away. There are some scenes where I audibly gasped simply because of how beautiful and surreal it looked. The colour palette is wonderful and is used effectively to evoke all kinds of emotions.
No cheap rehash moments to cash in on nostalgia (which is a complaint often heard about SW: TFA). The film is in line with BR but is bold enough to create its own original moments and it does not seek to rely on the original protagonist either.
I've been a big fan of Villeneuve ever since seeing Enemy and Prisoners in 2013. And his latest offering here further proves that he is on his way to becoming one of the legendary directors of this generation. His works have a fascinating amount of details and it takes a lot of skill to bring such intricate visions to life. I'm reading the trivia section right now and it's clear that he has a very deep love for sci-fi and was well aware of the weight he was bearing by taking charge of this sequel.
Now, Rutger Hauer was my favourite part about the original film, so my bias may be showing here: But 2049 couldn't capture something close to the effortless depth of Roy Batty. This may really be my only "criticism". What I adored about the original BR is that the "good vs. bad" discourse between a blade runner and a replicant (respectively) is so wonderfully ambiguous. I remember even Hauer argued that one could present a great argument on why Roy is actually the good guy and Deckard is the true villain. But comparatively, there wasn't much to chew on with the 2049 antagonists. But Sylvia Hoeks did a brilliant job with Luv, and Leto produced a perfectly chilling vibe on screen even with his very limited screen time.