Blade Runner 2049

Saw it last saturday afternoon and, I'll admit that my expectations were higher than normal. I decided to see it in XD and was absolutely blown away. From the amazing soundtrack to the beautiful cinematography, it was everything I hoped it would be. Even the longer run time didn't bother me and I was engrossed from the opening. Can't wait to see it again! Mr. Villenueve is to be congratulated.

Anyone else see it? Any thoughts?
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Last bumped on Oct 30, 2017, 10:11:40 AM
Every scene was a visual art piece. The music was, as Charan said, very much Hans Zimmer. Bring the humming bass on, ramp the decibels up, voila.

The pacing was a bit slow for my taste, just as the first movie. Ryan Gosling was a superhuman creation with super strength, toughness, reflexes and apparently intelligence - he was able to read DNA code in real time - but he acted as an emotionally stunted and kind of slow human most of the time, which annoyed me. Speaking of which, Gosling's entire performance annoyed me. IMO Michael Fassbender was a vastly superior android in Alien: Covenant. Not commenting on other aspects of that movie, just Fassbender's superb performance.

Jared Leto as the evil guy made me cringe. Megalomaniacal expositions, making zero sense whatsoever, he was just put there as a generic villain and info dump. Didn't like his performance either. All the actors in the movie acted more or less the same, up to and including Robin Wright, who was basically Claire Underwood. Flat, wooden, unconvincing. They managed to make people look like robots, while a good acting performance makes a robot look human.

Anyway, the movie could have done with much less contemplative stonefaced staring through windows and should've been cut down to about two hours. That's my take on it.

Also, there was a giant plot hole about two hours in. Spoiler alert:

Spoiler
When Love and her goons captured Deckard, she let Gosling live... Why?! She kills his fucking boss, she abducts this guy who's obviously like a father figure to him, he's a bioengineered professional fucking badass, let's kick him in the head and leave him lying there?! What the actual fuck? The movie should have ended then and there, with three bullets in his head and a few more in his body, just to make sure. Fuck that, if I were Love, I would also cut his head off, just to make sure. You never know. He did demonstrate an ability to absorb tremendous amounts of punishment and shrug it off earlier in the movie. Best to make sure, right?


So, yeah. I don't buy the hype by the critics, just as with the first Blade Runner. I thought it was overrated as well. Yes, fine, the movie has a certain mood and visual aesthetic, that part was well done if you like this sort of thing, the story pretends to be philosophical (although it's just a pretense IMO) and follows the basic mythological framework of the hero's journey to find himself - the new movie was basically Pinocchio, by the way - an artificial boy wants to be real and sets out to find his identity and has to save his father figure from the belly of the beast - but IMO it was all just a thin veneer of pretend depth. Just as in the first movie, there were a few scenes which made zero sense and broke my suspension of disbelief. Scenes in which the protagonist should've been killed right then and there, instead of being given a second chance by the bad guys for absolutely no reason. Add flimsy character motivation and characters overall, bad acting and a needlessly lumbering pace, and I think it's no surprise the new BR movie is a box office flop. Just as the first one.

p.s. I liked Sicario and Arrival quite a lot. I know Denis Villeneuve can make a good movie. I suppose he tried to stick to the spirit of the original a bit too much.
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I saw the movie and to be honest it was ok.

I love how the world looked and felt. It was awesome. If i could have anything i would like to see more of BR world or at least the concepts behind the design. Great stuff really great stuff.

Soundtrack was annoying somewhat. At one point during the movie my GF straight up said: "what the fuck is this? Innception? tone it down some." I am kind of with her on that. the soundtrack was taking me out of the movie from time to time. they could have done more with less (if you know what i mean).

The story was trying a little too hard to throw red herrings at certain plot points. Maybe because i watch too many movies or something I figured out "who was who/what" during the scene with "the memory lady" before it ended I was like: "she has just been there the whole time...alright." I get what they were trying to do but the execution was weak. Also Ryan Gosling's performance was weak as hell. He couldn't pull off a stoic expression on his face. Most scenes he looked like he was about to look at the camera and smile. That kept messing with me. I wish another actor was chosen to play the role. He still did pretty good but he could have been better. Jared Leto's character had my head scratching. I was wondering why his character was not written to be angry (or in this case angrier as time went on) with the idea that he could not figure out what Tyrell had done to make a replicant like Rachael. The scene where Wallace and Deckard sat down and had a talk should have been one of Wallace becoming more irate at Deckard not able to give him an answer despite what he was trying to offer him.

One more thing that actually bothered me. Did they have to shoot the 2nd replicant Rachael in the face like that? I get it they messed up a detail, but come on it is not her fault. I was sitting in the theater like: "so this is what hot in the streets? you just going to shoot her in the face? At least take her outside or something."

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I thought it was really good. Its hard to see it for what it was, I cant tell if I felt it was good or great because its bladerunner and if it stays true to bladerunner then it cant do to me what bladerunner did to me, it could be a better film than bladerunner and still not hit that high because every other sci fi film for the last 25+ years has tried to rip off aspects of what made bladerunner great and now that spot is numb. The original ghost in the shell is the only thing tat actually tingled those nerves, all the other ones just came off like a novice musician murdering your favourite song till you cant bear to hear it any more.


I didnt really get zimmer from the score, to me it just sounded like someone sat down with the brief to copy the vangelis style padwork with modern synths. It lacked the jazz/blues elements vangelis brought in, but I felt like that was appropriate as it was an almost completely inhuman film.

My fear was that it might be terrible, and if it wasnt terrible it might be emotional yet fail to hit the notes of the first film, and it was neither of those things. It was a cold, empty, dead space of a film, like the eye of a shark, and to me that was fantastic because I love movies like that and it didnt leave room for things to go wrong with the vibe. Unlike the ghost in the shell remake which attempted to hit the heart strings of the original and, for me, failed in horrible ways leaving a cheap, forced, corny taste that I just couldnt swallow.
I wasn't going to watch it at first. On the premise alone it felt like Yet-Another-Hollywood-Cashgrab, forced sequel bullshit.

BR2049 was easily one of the best sequels by a different director I've ever seen. Villeneuve captured Scott's style impeccably. The set design, visuals, everything was an immensely faithful reproduction. Similarly, Zimmer's imitation of Vangelis was superb.

The story was slow-paced but engaging, the casting was great. Gosling's brooding fit K very well. I'm looking forward to a {BR, WatanabeBR, BR2049} rewatch marathon in the future.
I've been trying to avoid this thread for fear of spoilers, but the comments speaking to the 'faithful reproduction of the atmosphere/setting' are putting me over the fence. I suspect I'll try to find some time to watch it before it leaves Imax.

Loved the original for the setting and I found it easy to get lost in the atmosphere and cinematography. I found the 2007 Final Cut to be my favourite. Knowing the storyline after repeated viewings, not having a distracting voiceover did much to allow me to sink that much deeper into the world on the screen.

The fact that Francher also has writing credits on 2049 (he co-wrote the original), leads me to hope there is strong continuity.
"We were going to monitor the situation but it was in the wrong aspect ratio."
Last edited by Garr0t on Oct 19, 2017, 4:49:38 PM
yeah def see it. film critics like mark kermode who absolutely loved bladerunner, his favourite movie, a very hard to please critic with an immense mind for films are signing its praises, he almost seemed a bit teary eyed that as such a big fan of bladerunner the sequel didnt just escape being a completely terrible stain thats best forgotten like some of the terminator and alien sequels, wasnt even just a good but flawed follow on like some of the recent alien sequels, but it was actually a triumph that lived up to the original.

You might prefer the original still, if ur a bladerunner fan its perhaps impossible for any sequel to surpass it given the amount of time and history of good will between you and the original that you saw when you were much younger and less critical. But theres a good chance you will absolute love the film, not guaranteed, but theres everything there to have a lot of serious long term fans coming out feeling like they just saw a proper full on bladerunner 2.

Like charan said, absolutely see it and see it in imax if u can.



spoilerish, dont read till uve seen it maybe

Spoiler

the only thing it lacked for me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ornnAaYF9k

those feels tho


I know what u mean about the more brutal edge to the sound charan. I felt like it worked, but I just wanted a couple more moments where we had a small broken chord finger run across some keys, a slow digital harp strum, a twinkle of soul glistening in the darkness.

The reason I feel like it worked, to me part of the magic of bladerunner was the meeting of the score and the core themes of the film. Youve got this harsh technological future, cold, inhuman, and this is kind of represented by this synthetic score coming out of machine synthesizers. But within the film is the glimmer of what it is to be human, a yearning for a thread of humanity, a longing to feel, and I felt like that was represented by these mournful blues and jazz tones, this hark back to a nostalgic time before technology consumed us the way it has even today. It was like the hints of warm jazz in the synths were the ghost in the machine, the human face and soul in the mechanical, synthetic beings that maybe even the humans seemed to have become.

the sequel, while it carries the themes of bladerunner, it is a more brutal, mechanical hearted film. The new skinjobs are less human hence less likely to run, the film isnt so much a question of humanities soul, a yearning for the lost heart of mankind, but a more forward looking piece about the future soul of the machines. What we have is a far more machine score, its still bladerunner, but its like the synthetic side of bladerunner pushed forward into this darker, more mechanical, digital sound. The fact there was still some symmetry there with between the music and the theme of the film, and that we got some moments of the tears in the rain, not much, but a hint, it was enough to sell me on it.


but at points I just wanted that extra little touch, a glimmer of jazz keys lost in the mix.


It was good but it didn't make me reassess my life goals or get ryan gosling's likeness tattooed over my face.
Went out and watched it in Imax on Saturday.

Man, what a ride. I think Villeneuve did a bang up job in capturing the feeling of the original, and I found myself very quickly absorbed in the world I recall so fondly. I agree the soundtrack could have done with a piece or two of actual music for two or three critical scenes and perhaps to have themed a chorus/refrain for characters (a la Rey's theme from Star Wars) to create a larger emotional impact with their presence so that it interrupts the overarching clinical precision and industrial humming otherwise heard throughout. I am glad they stayed away from licensing anything commercial that could potentially date the film during future viewings.

Stream of consciousness/thoughts about movie
I wonder if this movie will establish a new meaning for ménage à trois...

I suppose the 'startup' sound is a theme of sorts for Joi.

'More human than human.'
The self-realization that a replicant can be become emotionally attached to an AI; Does that make K 'more human', or simply confirm that both replicants and humans have the same emotional range?
If the only thing that separated replicants and humans was the ability to procreate, did Tyrell indeed create a new race of beings with Rachel being the progenitor? A new 'Eve' for a new race?
However, she was a one-off (well, at least it's clear all the models created under Wallace's reign cannot procreate). Or is it that all Nexus 8 generation replicants produced before the 'big black' are capable of reproduction?
When K discovers he's not 'the one', his choices are now conscious decisions and not driven by the 'fate' of his origin. Do you think the choices he made in the few hours that he truly knew who he was give him sufficient meaning to his life that he would feel fulfilled when he died?

'Tin-foil hat time'
Do Blade Runners still exist because the powers that be don't want to have to compete with replicants because of their physical/physiological superiority, or is it a purely economic thing (a la Wallace)? Is it a matter of species survival, and humans already know they aren't the fittest to survive?
Does replicant emancipation spell the beginning of the end for mankind?
"We were going to monitor the situation but it was in the wrong aspect ratio."
We got free movie tickets with my fiancee for our 30th birthday.
Hopefully we have time to check this movie. Trailers did look nice so expecting it is awesome movie ^^

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