"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."Ridley Scott's Blade Runner may not have been that heavy on dialogue, but every single dialogue in that film was a gem. Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049" too, follows the same footsteps. It is one of those sequels that can almost rival the original, at least in the technical aspects or so.
Denis has always been an extremely talented director, and this is just another masterpiece added to his name. It easily ranks among his best works, arguably at the top, in fact.
The film is as much of Roger Deakins (who has so far been the pre 2016 Ennio Morricone of cinematography, with 13 nominations but no win), whose every frame is a work of art, and captures the film and characters soulfully. You will seldom see a film as extraordinarily shot as Blade Runner 2049. It almost rivals the original in this aspect.
The film is set a few decades after the original, and is from the point of view of Officer K (played by Ryan Gosling), who's a replicant hunter aka "Blade Runner", just as Deckard was back in the day. He plays the scathing and rarely smiling role perfectly, it's the most different you may see Ryan Gosling be, because for him to control laughter is probably the miracle the film keeps talking about. Harrison Ford as Deckard is brilliant as expected, he's grumpier than ever and also has a sardonic sense of humour, and has a great taste in music. Robin Wright, Jared Leto, and the rest of the supporting cast has somewhat short roles, but every supporting actor does way more than justice to the roles. Ana De Armas as Officer K's hologram love interest Joi, is probably the film's most human character, despite not being a human technically. She's one of the few characters that feel, and ones that you feel about.
The major difference between the franchise's two protagonists is that we're 100% sure of Officer K's identity as that of a new model replicant, who hunts the older models. Like Deckard, he has some implanted memories, because he never was a kid, but some later twists make the idea of him being a replicant born kid very possible, and that's when the flood of major twists starts.
Officer K works for Lieutenant Joshi (Robin Wright), to whom he brings a new revelation, the miracle that he gets to hear about earlier on, remains of a replicant that gave birth some decades ago. He's then ordered to hunt down that replicant child, and who wouldn't love taking orders from Robin Wright?
But Joshi and K are not the only one tracking this mystery, as we meet another mysterious character, Niander Wallace (played by Jared Leto), who runs Wallace Corp. The mystery interests him because he's attempted to make millions of replicants in order to have them reproduce, but never has he succeeded.
That's where the journey starts for K, as he goes on to encounter many characters, including some from the original (with Deckard being the obvious), gets his ass kicked by Wallace's favourite replicant Luv (played by Sylvia Hoeks), and eventually discovers self, with some deeply human moments.
The film's score (by the legendary Hans Zimmer) doesn't quite feel as original as that of Ridley Scott's origin film, but it brings back the original film's vibes greatly, with appreciable nuance. Not among Zimmer's best scores, but sure as hell serves the film brilliantly. The action is very well choreographed, and is very gritty, just like the original.
I can easily call the film as another modern classic from this year, Villeneuve really hits it out of the park, like Nolan and Reeves did earlier this year. The film's last shot describes the film itself in the best possible way. Bittersweet and self-discovering.
★★★★
As if I needed more hype to see this movie. Thanks
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