Blade Runner 2049

I must admit. I can see why this film wasn't a phenomenal commercial success despite the incredible visual design, impeccable cinematographic work from Deakins, and visionary epic grandeur. It is just too methodical and glacial in its pacing for an audience who needs their science fiction of today to move at a locomotive pace, without much time to breathe or work its spell. Even Scott, director of the first film, admits that perhaps 30 minutes or so should have been excised to make the "Blade Runner 2049" more accessible to the speed junkie audience of today. In saying that, I think it does indeed work at home where you can pause, leave for a drink or popcorn, go to the bathroom, or even watch in stop and starts if time doesn't permit a long nearly three hour watch in one sitting. I cop to the fact that it took me probably six hours-an entire Friday evening-to finish it because I just didn't want to be in any hurry. It worked for me a lot better because of it.

The use of a "female companion program", Joi, who can function in any role you see fit, factors significantly during the journey of "replicant", "Joe". Joe (or K, trimmed down from a serial number used for blade runner LAPD "skinners" sent out to "retire" (or execute) old model replicants who have rebelled, leaving behind a life of servitude in favor of freedom) finds a box containing the bones of Rachael (Decker's replicant love from the first film), with evidence she conceived a child, the cause of her demise. The current replicant-creating genius, Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), wants to find Decker and Rachael's child, sending out an "agent", Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), to follow Joe. Joe searching for the child, finds her, even though he doesn't realize it, a concealed "memories programmer" named Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri), encased in an elaborate "digital playground" because she is unable to venture outside due to an "atmospheric condition". He has a vision of a wooden horse, with a date important at its feet, also carved into the tree near the box containing Rachael's bones. Dave Batista's replicant, found and killed in a fight by Joe (Ryan Gosling), had the box buried on his farm property. Harrison Ford's Decker is later found due to his heat signature in a casino at the deserted and radioactively desolate ruins of Vegas (incredible statues of seductively posing ladies mark the city when you arrive) where Joe (and eventually Luv) finds him. Wallace wants Decker to tell him where his daughter is while Joe will try and prevent that from happening. Robin Wright is Joe's human "madam", a law enforcement superior hoping to maintain the peace between replicants and humans, later multiple-times stabbed by Luv when she's out to find Joe, after having lost his trace.

Ford doesn't arrive to the film until the point where only an hour remains, trying to ward off Joe before relenting because punching him in the face got tiring due to no effect. Joe's visit outside the "greater Los Angeles" area shows a lot of scattered poverty-stricken humans (you often hear about those "off-planet", so many still on Earth are bereft of luxuries, often scrounging for food and items of survival). Ana's concealed home is a dynamo as her hands turn this device that create visual events designed through whatever she invents for replicants (just some type of human memories to give them an idea of what it is like). Los Angeles is an updated neo-noir metropolis, given the high-tech internet age aesthetic. Replicants must maintain a "baseline" in order to remain competent officers on duty. Joe eventually loses his which rules him as "rogue". The score stays true to the first film with its synth-heavy sound. The canvas for the film is inspired and the camera captures the scope of the epic story in eye-popping fashion. Even though this is Gosling's film for the most part, Ford fans will get their fill of the charismatic icon. The scene where Joi offers Joe a present by synching with a prostitute is visually phenomenal...the way her digital impression sort of sleeves on Mackenzie Davis is something to see. Fans of the busy, crowded, rain-drenched streets so identifiable to the first Blade Runner will be happy with the sequel. Fans of Walking Dead: Lennie James has a small part as an assembly factory (employed by impoverished bald kids in rags) "supervisor" Joe encounters when looking for his wooden horse figurine. All the money spent on this film was put to good use even if this didn't turn a real profit...sure pops off the screen, filled with rich sci-fi detail. Perhaps this will be a cult favorite a decade from now... Joe and Luv are both played robotic, and yet because of their missions and actions, the two are sketched on different paths. With not a lot of genuine emotion on display, Ford's presence becomes welcome.