Blade runner 2049...some thoughts...

This looks more interesting to me:


(I thought I posted this to the forums last night but it was gone this morning)

Today is my 42nd birthday so I took off work to go see it alone, in an empty theater.

I'm not going to say much right now so this is just the visceral, sitting in the car still tearing up reaction.

Blade Runner is my favorite movie of all time. I almost didn't want to see this because I didn't want anything to damage that perfect memory of watching that movie and the almost hallucinatory world it creates.

But this movie not only took me back there, it made it more without spoiling it.

At one point in it, I thought "this is the Empire Strikes Back to Blade Runner's A New Hope".

There are probably flaws. It's not "better". I don't care. Tears in rain.

This is a very cool B-day present you made to yourself, Mr. Barnes, happy birthday!

It's very interesting that this movie is getting such divisive opinions. This, and apparent commercial failure, is following all the right steps. Who knows, maybe in 10 years I'll be saying it is a masterpiece.

By the way, it sucks that it failed in the box office... bad news for Villeneuve's Dune, bad news for serious sci-fi films.

Seeing it tonight. Pumped.

I do think that movies like this have a longer tail than many other sci fi films in revenue, so hold out some hope.

There's no such thing as good news for serious sci-fi films.

Pfffftt.... idiots


Oh, happy birthday Barnesy.
*holds you closely....for too long*

Ok, some random notes...all spoilers, so read no further if you haven't seen it. I went in with NOTHING other than the first trailer to go on. That is absolutely optimal.

- I cried for half the movie. It was so enveloping...the beginning sequence really kind of perfectly nailed he subtle thing that makes Blade Runner so special- he mix of futurism and nostalgia. K goes to the farm and it's all high tech and sci fi...but he walks in the house and it could be any house from 1930-2049.

- On a meta level, the nostalgia for BR was so utterly perfect. I had no idea Gaff was in it, I had no idea Olmos was in it. I _loved_ how SOUND was used to reflect on the first film- dialogue like Rachel's VK test. I LOVED that Rachel was sort of what set the detective story in motion, and I loved her reappearance- and how it was a replica of the original scene. Lots of depth there.

- Joi, although astonishingly beautiful (I like the "bangs" skin), I thought was going to be problematic. It seemed a little too far beyond BR tech, even for 2049. But it turned out to be GREAT. It is a concept that fits right into some of the more Dickian elements of BR- the loneliness of the people left on Earth, trying desperately to replicate or replace lost emotions. There is a direct line from the Penfield Mood Organs in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to Joi. And Siri.

- Love was an interesting adversary- but she did lack the empathy that even the utterly ruthless Roy Batty conjures up. Her desire to be the best was maybe not explored quite enough.

- I thought Leto was really good, and I usually don't care for his schtick. He struck me as someone influenced by Tyrell, but eccentric and aloof- obviously a brilliant man. But also operating at a different level of morality and empathy.

- the general plot line was handled really well, and I think narratively it was more compelling than the first film. I bought that K being the child wasn't the real mystery...and the reveal that he wasn't was profoundly moving. It deepened his character- and the concept of replicants developing feelings- tremendously.

- All of the key BR themes were exquisitely handled...memories, loneliness, transhumanism, artifice, obedience, biology, simulacrums, mortality...everything was double-downed on, and I think there is more of the "finer" subtext here than in BR.

- Deckard...it is really hard to not just see Harrison Ford now. But I still loved his presence.

- There was no scene as bad as when Deckard tries to get into Zora's dressing room.

- Fun moment- Deckard takes the door,
K busts through the wall. What a great little character piece that shows what different replicants they are.

- The finale at the dam was definitely the weakest part. I did like he relentlessness if he fight between Love and K, but it was just pitched at a level that did not feel very BR.

- On the violence/action- it did seem a little ramped up...but then remember that BR had some pretty violent bits, like when Batty pushes those bloody sponges into Tyrell's eyes.

- The ending was MASTERFUL. K on the steps, with Batty's theme...if you know and live BR, you had to have thought "...all those moments will be lost in time..like tears in rain...time to die." in your mind. What a moving, impactful echo that was. It culminated K's storyline, his emotional emergence and disappointment to his acceptance of destiny.

- This will win every technical Oscar they make. I feel like every key, every crew member, every department, and every actor gave it their all to make this the best science fiction film possible in 2017. It's been 35 years, so it feels like this is a once in a lifetime shot to get it right. I think they made it, and the divisive reactions and box office floundering only ensures that this film will grow in stature and recognition for decades to come. Best picture nomination for sure given the number they nominate these days.

- Music- GOD DAMN.

- One thing I thought about tonight is how for all of these years, there has been SO MUCH that has tried to capture the feeling and look of BR. In books, games, anime, comics, fashion, music...all over the place. But all of that searching for the secret formula, so to speak, never paid off. But here it was. They pulled it off, and somehow made it bigger without ruining he perfect crystal memory of the first film. It broadens, develops, and most importantly honors the original.

- I have decided not to take legal action against Senor Villeneuve and Hampton Fancher for completely plagiarizing some concepts and the opening scene for Blade Runner 2 that I wrote sometime in the early 1990s. I opened with police spinners pulling up outside a building and firing missiles to wipe out a cell of replicant rebels. However, if they would like to use elements of my Blade Runner 2 script, which is primarily about the replicant uprising, I will gladly accept a credit in the highly unlikely Blade Runner 3.

Great movie!

Couple things:

---definitely not "mysterious" or open ended in the way BR was. I thought it worked out fine that way, though.

---the visuals and music were consistently spot on

---i adored the way they handled K's coming to terms with not being the child, I thought it was great character work and made the film much richer

---the action scenes in the film were not super frequent but were handled really well, better than BR's action. I think BR's actionish scenes were one of its weaker parts.

---the film did a masterful job communicating loneliness and disconnection, just as good if not better than BR.

---i deeply appreciated that themes of this film started from "are machines human?" and went into more interesting, less played out questions. "Are machines human?" was a great theme for 80s sci fi but I'm very happy with their decision to treat other themes about humanity and existence instead.

---i also thought ending in a cyborg fight was a bit limp.

---as a side note, I found BR2049's vision of the future to be vastly more depressing and upsetting than most post apocalyptic films (and BR)

Gary Sax wrote: ---as a side note, I found BR2049's vision of the future to be vastly more depressing and upsetting than most post apocalyptic films (and BR)

Yeah, I got that feeling, too. I think there's a certain tones of anarchic society in BR, where you can envision a possibility of slipping through the cracks and just living a more or less bearable life. Also, when Deckard and Rachael "escape", there's some hope for their future. That is shattered completely when you see Harrison Ford living a lonely life in the middle of a radioactive zone. Or when you glimpse at the poverty and gangs outside the urban area.

On a side-note:
I saw 2049 on it's opening weekend during an afternoon screening in one of the bigger theatres in the city.
The theatre was almost empty....I would say 10% of the seats were taken at most.
So I fear the reception over here echoes that in the US.
And I do think that is sad, as I feel this movie definitly deserves a bigger audience, as it more intelligent than 95% of filmed SF.
My girlfriend pointed out to me we were the only "younger" people sitting there...and when my eyes began to register the rest of the audience in the dark indeed all I saw were people of 70+ age. At first I was a bit surprised to see such an audience for a SF movie, but then it dawned me that these people were roughly my age way back when the original BR hit theatres...

Blade Runner is a movie that I always seemed to like the idea of more than I did actually watching it. Perhaps I'm a bit more low brow as I gravitated more towards EfNY and Mad Max.

So, before I go see this, should I watch that 'Final Cut' that came out 10 years ago or am I good with just seeing the theatrical version 20 years ago?

No. Theatrical version was good enough.

This movie is a bit easier to engage and faster paced, I think you'll like it.

This film did what the new starwars films didn't in that it took me back to my childhood. I felt the visuals, and critically the pacing was right on the mark. This felt like Bladerunner to me, rather than a modern homage. I liked the plot for about the first half, and then i felt it started to fall apart down the final stretch.

I loved Jared Letos character

The original film was in my view, to an extent carried by Roy Batty. You have Harisons Hero, and Rutgers anti hero and they both go through this emotional exploration of who they are. In this film we get Gosling and it works for a while but he cannot quite carry it alone. The female villain appears to show emotion at a few points in the film but ends up just being a standard evil chic. And the other female characters in the film feel sort of disposable (two are literally brought on screen to be disposed of). I quite liked his AI girl friend character but i struggled to really connect with their relationship because the film really pushes the question as to whether its real. Not just because she is AI but because she is advertised as 'what you want to hear'. In the original film the relationship between Batty and Pris, and Deckard and Rachel are a large part of what hooks me into it. That is completely missing here. I guess it is due to the films underling question. The original was about emotion making us human and whether memories are the basis of it. Here it seems to be that you cannot tell whether love is real but having children is, and this makes us more human.

Whilst i see the need for references to original works, and you need some stuff the same i have limited patience for homage scenes. Didn't like the trench run in new star wars much, here we get numerous rotate the camera scenes, a trip to the new version of the egyptian, and less obvious but a mirror of Roy Battys death scene, and a meeting with a character that works for Tyrell. Individually they are fine but altogether it feels like the script writers were a bit short on ideas at some points.

The film still looks fantastic though, and i will watch it again, probably a lot.

Tonight, my wife is going to watch Blade Runner for the first time.

Do I rent theatrical or final cut?

You know what one of the most awesome pieces of minutiae is in this movie? There was a PAN AM building. I love how that teeny little detail sets the film in the timeline of the 1982 original.

Let alone that Atari had a gigantic sign.