Was I ready to see how deep the rabbit hole goes?..

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2017)

A film-noir about Loneliness. Deep, dark, hopeless loneliness. That is the feeling that will seize you if you allow it to engulf you, if you dare to immerse yourself in this movie. Not for moments, not with the ending, but throughout the film. And as a film-noir with such purpose, it has reached its goal in a sublime way. If that was the message to convey. Was it?.. Was the director clear about the message it wanted to convey?.. Judging by the very last scene, I do have some doubts left though.
I try to remain objective about this movie, as I feel it has almost fully succeeded to detach itself from the original Blade Runner which for me is definitely one of the, if not THE, best sci-fi of all times. This movie should definitely not be seen as a sequel in my recommendation. The major difference between the original and 2049 is the atmosphere: while the original filled me with a majestic, overwhelming feeling of an expanding universe with limitless possibilities amid the darkness and a clear message of Hope in the end, the new movie has filled me with desperation and an utter feeling of loneliness, the conclusion that all is hopeless and lost. The ending did not manage to turn this and for that I am disappointed, as throughout the long movie I was hoping that all this slow-moving build-up will finalize in a cathartic ending. Instead, it left me disappointed and with the only scene that I feel (unfortunately) did copy the first movie's ending almost literally, but in a dissonant way. I think that the music had much to do with it: the constant humming, pulsating bass added more of a horror tint to this movie, while Vangelis' music in the original almost had me in tears of joy. Such emotion through music, it can lift spirits or destroy one utterly through the soullessness, as is made by a machine. The reason I loved the original was its human face: the bitter-sweet moments of human and android at the piano and deep feelings of love, to memories, family, self and to life. The credibility of the android in its own emotions. The fragility and character development of the merciless hunter, who became the hunted. The drama of the existence of the androids and the ambiguity of their purpose. The ever present suspense, open for any means of ending and plots to unfold. The very fabric of the movie, portraying both life and death, emotions of extremes in those not deemed worthy of emotions. It made for an experience never to be forgotten and set the foundation of that strange world, which perhaps is not so far from ours in many ways. And who can forget about the test with the turtle? "Tell me about your mother.." The new one is fully deprived from all emotion. It's as if we suddenly see everything through machine eyes, depriving us from the right of having emotions. It may be an issue with the acting or the simple fact that we take everything for face value from the start: the hologram partner is just bits and bytes, the hunter is an android with low chances of dying and emotions seem to be bits and bytes too, not challenged by our thoughts of whether we should believe them. The new movie failed in creating emotions that force us to reassess our privilege of having them, over robots that are not supposed to have them. It gives us no free will to contemplate, to think and evaluate anything. Instead, it presents us with solutions from the start and a far too obvious matter of implanted memories. Does it really matter in the end how the memory plot turns out to be, if I am left with the same sadness from the start till the end? One cannot but feel pity and sadness for the tragedy of these beings, but it leaves us without twists or paradigms to put our teeth in: it's a silver platter of sorrow, to be chewed for the duration of the movie and to be swallowed with no fine wine to ease the burden. The only hope we feel is to be relieved from this pressing burden, the burden the movie puts on us. But there is no relief, ever.
So why do I still rate this movie so highly? To torment ourselves on the tragedy of life and our very own existence, this film-noir scores top marks. If you're ready to be subdued, you will rarely find a more sublime piece of art that can push you into the abyss. Which it will: what other purpose would a movie like this serve than to swallow you, as with a mindset of light entertainment it would be a cringe piece of bore?.. For the (not so few) of us who leave the cinema with the uncomfortable feeling of rather wanting to forget about the strange emotions this movie left us with: just give it some time, the day may come when you're ready to take the plunge.