Did I like it? I loved it!

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2018)

Bladerunner 2049 should be seen in a cinema on the biggest screen you can find. I don't often go to the cinema though, which is why I review films long after their release. With a decent TV and surround sound (seriously, this will rattle your bass bins) this still packs a punch though. As I've said before, I'm not one for science fiction, but I do enjoy a good bleak depiction of a dystopian future and Bladerunner is nothing if not that. There are problems here, I don't rate Gosling, but then he's playing a soulless replicant here, so perhaps he's perfect. Same for Ridley Scott, self indulgent and self aggrandising, but Bladerunner is what he does best and seeing as he's handed the controls over to Villeneuve here he seems to get away with it. So despite this not matching the originality of the... original, it is a worthy piece of carefully crafted cinema. Deakins' cinematography is gorgeous. Equal parts cyberpunk sensory overload and sleek desolation and lets face it, a big part of this is all about style. Couple that with Zimmers Vangelis inspired score and you've got a real feast for the senses. Despite Reynolds inadequacies, he's the hero, the focus, present in nearly every scene and thus even I find myself warm to him as he melts in with the bleak industrial nightmare of the future and his world begins to unravel from what he thought he knew wasn't real. Sadly some of the plot points are somewhat telegraphed, but the narrative still ticks along very nicely and for all the stark future-tech, there is jeopardy, a real connection with the characters. When Ford appears though, I couldn't help feel that that kind of presence is what it had been missing for the previous 2 hours. I don't know whether he had it written into his contract that he'd get the best lines, but to be frank, he delivers them all with style, a style that despite his best efforts, Gosling can't touch, not least due to his apparent inability to convey any kind of feeling in that vacant look permanently etched on his face. Is it indulgent? Of course it is. Did I like it? I loved it!