Blade Runner 2049 Review (2017)

Blade Runner 2049

  Denis Villenueve is a director I've been following for a while now. With gems like Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario, and Arrival up his sleeve, I was really excited to see what he would do with the new Blade Runner.
  Now, I am a very objective person, and so I know the difference between a movie that is objectively good overall and a movie that is subjectively entertaining to me. Sometimes, a film isn't both, and that is how I felt about Blade Runner 2049.
  This is a film that takes the concepts of the original Blade Runner and really expands on them in a unique way that I really respect. Before anything else, I have to address one of the most talented cinematographers working today, Rodger Deakins. Dude. There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe my love for his gorgeous cinematography. Every shot is so rich and mind-blowing that even if you hate everything about this film, it is still worth seeing for the visual feast alone. It is a very very good looking film with splendid production and set design as well.
  Aside from the visuals though, Villenueve takes all the best parts of the original Blade Runner and expands on them in a superior way. He dives headfirst into the world and reality of a replicant and we really get to feel the loneliness and confusion that comes with that. From an objective standpoint, Blade Runner is actually quite a masterpiece in the science fiction genre, and Ryan Gosling does absolutely fantastic in the role. It offers us a lot in terms of a meditative reflection of society and what it means to be human in a visually poetic way.
  My subjective take on the film, however, not being a HUGE fan of the original, is that it took far too long to tell the story and could have cut off at least an hour of its runtime. Clocking in at two hours and forty-five minutes, Blade Runner 2049 teeters on self-importance and losing its entertainment value. Because of this, my subjective rating would have to be 6 out of 10 stars (Worth Ticket Price), while my objective rating would probably be 9 out of 10 (I'd Buy It On Blu-ray). If you are a fan of the original Blade Runner, I guarantee you will love this film. If not, you'll definitely be feeling that runtime. Either way, if you're going to see it, see it in theaters.