Blade Runner 2049
(2017)Ryan Gosling stars in the sequel to the Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel to Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic. Returning are Harrison Ford who reprises his role as Rick Deckard and Scott who co-produces.... More
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.Hide
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Directed by Denis Villeneuve ('Arrival', 'Sicario', 'Enemy')
Starring Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Jared Leto, Barkhad Abdi
Written by Michael Green, Hampton Fancher (Based on characters from the novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' by Philip K. Dick)
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Blade Runner 2049
BY Ian_Anderson superstar
In this movie there is rarely any doubt who the replicants are. While there is plenty of violence there is very little shock... More value. Despite being a violent, dystopian, sci-fi film about the LAPD and androids it gets increasingly sentimental, climaxing in the final scene. There are more female characters among the antagonists and the supporting cast but also a stronger sense of women (real and virtual) existing largely for the sexual pleasure of men.
The mise-en-scène follows nicely on from the first movie, with what looks like a bigger budget. Like the original one, this film will stay in the mind longer than most due to its visual impact.Hide
BY arlem grader
One of those movies that relies on the high tech effects outweighing long, boring monologues and whole dialogues that leave you wondering what just got discussed. Lots of excessive, unrelated nudity that will leave you wondering if Weinstein was the producer and how the NZ Censors could rate the R13. I almost fell asleep so left before the finale to avoid another naked woman shot that had nothing to do with the movie.
BY HMJ lister
From the reactions of those I saw it with (they hated it, I loved it), I recommend anyone going to Blade Runner 2049 first watch Blade Runner. The Director's Cut, that is. The original theatrical release didn't do particularly well for good reason. When Ridley Scott finally had the clout to present the movie he wanted to make it was, to my mind, far superior. Viewed with... More in this context, chances of enjoying this movie are likely to go up.
There are themes in this movie that reference the source material of Phillip K. Dick's story Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? That were by passed in Blade Runner. This makes me wonder if another movie is planned/hoped for by the team that has bought us BR 2049. I sure hope so. I think Vileneuve has what it takes to further explore the grey and frightening world where we can no longer be sure what is real.Hide
BY mondoolix lister
Blade Runner 2049 is really good. Like the original, the visuals are the star of the show. Roger Deakins puts his gorgeous cinematography on show again (and maybe it is lucky number 14 to get allusive Oscar) and the plethora of visual effects are mind-blowing (the '3 way' sex scene is mastery). I would highly recommend going to the... More toilet before this film, and eating beforehand as she is a long film.
At close to three hours, I was surprised how good the pace was and didn't feel the need to check the time to see how long to go. I would say that the characters and the performances were fine, but the real star is how far technology has come and the technological feats that this film accomplished.Hide
BY fairbrother superstar
At one end of the reaction-spectrum will be those who bemoan it's slow pace and gargantuan running-time; it's emotional remoteness and cerebral preoccupations; it's emphasis on mood and ideas rather than action and melodrama. That last one, I think, will be the real litmus test for many in the audience; 2049 is sci-fi spectacle for viewers who find Hollywood's usual sci-fi spectacles too sensationalized and explosiony.
We, at this... More other end of the reaction-spectrum, will revel in the film's total commitment to building an alternate reality (to which the pacing becomes integral); the trust it places in the viewer to make sense of that world (including its oppressive sense of human disconnection); and the performances that lend a fragile humanity to the artificial (the emotions are definitely there if only one pays attention).
The overlap between these two camps will be that everyone can agree the film is a visual masterwork. Nobody, I think, will deny that the cinematography, art direction, and special effects are anything less than dazzling. Even if the story does nothing for you, images this supremely crafted demand to be experienced in a cinema, and are worth the price of admission alone. The soundtrack's magnificently brooding rumble, too, is what surround sound was made for.
It's as richly atmospheric as future-fantasy gets, a head-trip to another time and place, a noirish reckoning with our symbiotic relationship to technology. As someone who's always admired the original Blade Runner without truly loving it, I found the sequel both worthy and impressive, a fitting expansion of that classic for a new generation. It'll bore some people to tears and hold others, me included, utterly spellbound.Hide
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The Press Reviews
It just has to be experienced on the biggest screen possible. Blade Runner 2049 is a narcotic spectacle of eerie and pitiless vastness, by turns satirical, tragic and romantic. Full Review
Villeneuve's film is a direct continuation in every respect; it's difficult to imagine anyone - even Ridley Scott - making a better Blade Runner sequel. Full Review
Visually immaculate, swirling with themes as heart-rending as they are mind-twisting, 2049 is, without doubt, a good year. And one of 2017's best. Full Review
A voluptuous mood bath that's impressively sustained from beginning to end. Full Review
A visually breathtaking, long-fuse action movie whose unconventional thrills could be described as many things - from tantalising to tedious - but never "artificially intelligent." Full Review
Immersing you in a complete wow, Blade Runner 2049 is the thinking person's sci-fi event of the year. Full Review
I imagine most audiences will like the film ... I thought it was okay. Full Review
Despite its blockbuster trappings, this Blade Runner is as much an art movie as the first one: slow, idea-driven, and often emotionally remote. Full Review
Villeneuve has taken the double-edged sword of the update and created a Blade Runner 2049 worthy of honouring its ancestor, while bringing it appropriately into the mid-21st Century. Full Review
An immersive masterpiece that may even surpass the original. Full Review
My brain still hasn't stopped whirring, neither has my heart. Full Review
An artform of suspense and enigma that's as compelling and fascinating as it is emotionally distant. Full Review
BY Tony Stamp Flicks Writer
Denis Villeneuve is some kind of cinematic magician. He bounces between genres, masters them all, and has now resurrected a 35-year-old classic and made it his own. It’s like he soaked in the essence of Blade Runner and channelled it into this new story, which continues the original’s themes regarding sentience, expands on them, then adds new shades of grey.... More
Villeneuve is also a master of tone, recreating Ridley Scott’s trick of making everything feel like a puzzle to be solved. Blade Runner 2049 is enigmatic, continually intriguing, and at its heart, a noir film. One of the first shots of Ryan Gosling has him in silhouette, and throughout characters are shrouded in darkness as we try to parse their motivations.
Each scene feels like a window into a place worth exploring. It’s full of fascinating characters, some of whom we only meet fleetingly. Future L.A. may be a blasted hell-scape, but it’s an exhilarating place to spend some time, and one that’s realised with huge attention to detail.
Gosling is great, bringing the stoicism of his work with Nicolas Winding Refn but allowing some warmth to creep through. And Harrison Ford keeps proving that he can actually still act, getting some of the most moving moments in a story that deals with tragedy and redemption.
Blade Runner 2049 honours its predecessor by using it as inspiration for a crop of new ideas. It’s a bold, bleak dose of sci-fi miserabilism that occasionally reveals its beating human heart.Hide
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