Director: Denis Villeneuve
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 164 minutes
Blade Runner 2049 (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Time is a precious commodity many of us often don’t tend to appreciate enough. For us it was hard to believe that more than 30 years had passed since the release of the original Blade Runner, and that this ancient, but stellar, movie once again became relevant because a sequel was released in 2017, which took both older and younger audiences by surprise, but never really grasped the world as the original movie did. Nonetheless, when it was still airing in theatres the consensus was that this movie was a visual masterpiece. We were wondering if it could still hold up in the small(er) screens of your living rooms.
The original movie took place in 2019, which was in 1982 still a distant future, which was imagined to be very advanced and it seems we aren’t on that track just yet. Our world was full with replicants, which were basically bioengineered human beings to do all of our dirty jobs. In essence these so-called soulless human beings were nothing more than slaves. Now almost 30 years have passed, and we meet up with K (Ryan Gosling), who is one of those bioengineered beings, who has the somewhat unhappy occupation of having to ‘retire’ (kill) rogue replicants, mainly older models that were used in the first movie. On K’s latest mission, he was sent to retire Sapper (Dave Bautista), an older rogue model, but he discovers a lot more than he bargained for. On the replicant’s property a small case is discovered with the remains of another replicant. The bones show signs of a c-section, meaning that the bioengineered female was pregnant at one point, and even delivered a baby to this world, something that was expected to be impossible. K is then sent out to nip this in the bud, making sure that no one would find out, especially Wallace (Jared Leto), the current manufacturer of all replicants, who clearly has a closet full of secrets himself. Wallace is out to find out how he can get his creations to reproduce like normal human beings, and thus he sends out his most trusted replicant, Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), to investigate the case, by any means necessary.
We have kept the spoilers on the low side, as the story progresses rather slowly, and we would state too much if we dug any deeper. If you’re expecting a fast and flashy movie, we assume you didn’t watch the first movie, and we can immediately state that this movie won’t be your cup of tea. The story crawls at a slow pace, which isn’t a bad thing for this futuristic movie, as each scene is clearly well thought out, as it’s all about atmosphere, and setting the proper mood. Each scene is presented in a very picturesque fashion, which works perfectly with the story that is being told at a leisurely pace. Graphically speaking, this movie is simply impressive, thanks to its grand backdrops, amazing sets, the overall vibe of the future, even though it’s something that should look like our future in a mere thirty years.
When looking at the characters, and those who portray them, this movie has a lot of interesting personas, ranging from the replicants such as K and Luv, each fighting a different battle, to the holographic love interest of K, Joi (Ana de Armas), the human agent Deckard (Harrison Ford) to the somewhat power-hungry Wallace. Each of these characters is truly intriguing, and you will feel passionate about beings that aren’t considered human in the movie.
The special features on the Blu-ray edition of Blade Runner 2049 are divided into three parts, namely a fairly meaty making of that mostly handles the design of the movie, three prologues, all created by different artists tell us a bit what happened between 2019 and 2049, and last but not least, there are short snippets that elaborate a bit on what is going on in the Blade Runner universe.
Conclusion
Blade Runner 2049 is a visual masterpiece that didn’t receive the attention it deserved. While the story may not move at a fast and flashy pace, the buildup is incredible, the sets and backdrops used are equally amazing and the overall story is captivating and grips you at all the right moments and places. If you loved the original, you’ll love this sequel as well. If you want to skip the old movie, if you’re not into ‘dated’ material, you can still easily view this movie without any prior knowledge of the original.
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