Not quite sure what to make of Villeneuve

Rating: 7/10 (21 August 2018)

I was waiting for this movie, pretty much everything seemed to be in place for a good movie, even the ratings were good. When I finally got to see it I wasn't too thrilled.
I've seen four movies from Villeneuve now, Prisoners, Enemy, Arrival and now this. Best of them have been Prisoners, which is a super solid blockbuster drama thriller with superb acting and Enemy, which is more of an indie curiosity. I wasn't blown away by Arrival like many, but thought it was just "pseudo smart" thinker sci-fi wrapped up in nice package. Bladerunner 2049 falls a bit into the same cathegory. Both seem to have deep characters and the slow pace makes the movies seem smart, but something lacks and especially Bladerunner feels shallow. Ryan Gosling is a good actor, but I felt zero connection to his character. Harrison Ford couldn't re-connect to his portrayal of Deckard either in my opinion. The characters just didn't work.
The package is nice, no doubt about it, very very nice imagery. I may watch the movie again just for the pics, maybe I'll get deeper into the characters next time too. Overall I now feel that this was overly stylized and long where proper character direction was forgotten. It's kind of shame as Ryan Gosling pulls of very good scenes here and there, but they weren't enough to salvage the whole. Especially as the ending, in my opinion, isn't very rewarding.