Monday Movie Mania - Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is one of those movies that we missed when it was at our local theater. DH was in the middle of soccer season. Not to mention, this was soon after his mom passed, so he was spending a lot of his free time doing  stuff for or with his dad. I didn't dare go without him so I went to Professor Marston and the Wonder Women instead.

But the original is on DH's list of favorites, so he wanted to watch it, and we tried the Amazon Prime rental feature. I was impressed with the ease and the quality of the streaming function.

But this isn't a review about Amazon, and since the movie came out less than a year ago...


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SPOILERS



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PROS
1) The story picks up thirty years after Blade Runner, and the producers and director stayed true to the noir atmosphere of the original movie.

2) I've never been a big fan of Ryan Gosling, but he did a convincing and sympathetic job as the replicant blade runner, K.

3) Robin Wright has really come into her own as an actress. I only wish there had been more of her in the film. Her character hints that she knows more about K than he realizes.

4) The writers add more clues that Deckard is himself an even more advanced replicant than Rachel without actually coming out and saying the truth. (The character figured out the truth in Phillip K. Dick's book , the basis for the original movie, but he retired Rachel to hide that he knew the truth.)


CONS
1) Using K the same way Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty was used in the first movie. It was at its heart lazy writing.

2) Taking Deckard off-world to interrogate him makes no sense. It would be a total waste of resources on a dying earth.

3) This story continues the recent trend of movies that set up the protagonist as "The Chosen One" only to yank the rug out from under them. I don't mind the everyperson being the protagonist whose moral compass demands they do the right thing, but I hate the need of writers to trash the protagonist's ego. It's a morality convention the Hollywood seems determined to shove down the throats of the Millenials, to say "Hey, you're not special, no matter what your parents said."


Overall, I give Blade Runner 2049 8 out of 10 stars just for the annoyances in my CONS list.