Blade Runner 2049

Smiley 30 September 2017

In 1982 Blade Runner changed cinema forever. It set the benchmark for dystopian near-future sci-fi, and has matured like a fine wine, whilst later attempts to achieve the same thing have aged like a tray of plums in the sun. If you want proof, watch Blade Runner, then watch Total Recall (the Arnie one) which is nearly a decade younger, also based on a Philip K Dick story and set in the same universe. Then tell me which one looks like it was made yesterday, and which one looks like a fibreglass moonrock nightmare. It’s not just the set design which continues to blow me away, either. The script, the cinematography, the acting, the Vangelis soundtrack...now, 35 years after the original, there’s a sequel.

As I’m sure you all remember, Blade Runners are cops who hunt down and destroy rogue replicants (human-esque androids) who run amok in a state of existential crisis. Well, it looks like they still haven’t worked the bugs out, as we again follow Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a Blade Runner, as he investigates a case that leads him to former BR Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Whatever happens, the one thing I’m certain of is that it will mostly happen in foggy, poorly lit back alleys in the rain. Noir-tastic.

I’m conflicted. On the one hand Director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) is not only accomplished but stated that he didn’t want to do it until he read the script (written by original line-penner Hampton Fancher) which he has described as “one of the best” he’s ever read. Which hopefully means that it’s as slick and quotable as the original. There are also dangers, however. Firstly, there was a question left open at the end of the original movie that fans have debated for years. Well, that’s been answered straight away. And it’s not that it is or isn’t the “right” answer, it’s just that now there is an answer, there’s no more debate. So there is a very real danger of “demystifying” some other elements of the original. So, will this be a repli-can’t or a repli-can? See it on the 6th to find out.