2017 sci-fi sequel
Rating: 15/20
Plot: One of Hollywood's Ryans tracks down replicants, including one that is apparently the actual offspring of two others.
Whether you like the story or the nearly six-hour running time or not, this movie looks and sounds fantastic. I'm not sure there's anything visually here that hasn't already been seen in tons of other sci-fi dystopian movies made in the time between Blade Runners, but director Denis Villenueve and his special effects team pull it all off so spectacularly here. It's definitely a spectacle, and with the Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch score, it's a great experience for at least two of the senses.
I watched the original Blade Runner yet again to refresh my poor movie memory before seeing this sequel, and I still just don't love it like I think I'm supposed to. I think the main reason, other than hating it as a kid because I expected it to be something else, is because of how cold it is. It's just a chilly movie. That's probably the way it's supposed to be, and it's likely the appropriate tone a noirish sci-fi movie needs to have. But it just feels a little flat and lifeless. This sequel has a bit more heart, and I think that's why I ended up liking it more than its predecessor. I'm not sure I'm supposed to like it more than the first one or how I feel about that.
I'm not sure what to make of Jared Leto, some extraneous nudity (Villenueve must be a butt guy), and some implausible action sequences. I liked the new femme villainous badass Luv played by Sylvia Hoeks, some genuinely trippy effects, the CGI world-building, and both Harrison Ford (who's not in this as much as you might think) and whichever Ryan that is. There's also a wonderfully erotic scene that is a prelude to off-screen lovemaking that I thought was ingenious. Villenueve's made a sequel that is consistent with the 1982 Ridley Scott movie with its lugubrious tone, it's laborious pacing, and it's lumbersome length. I doubt this movie is going to seem nearly as original in 2017 as the original Blade Runner must have in 1982, but in order to succeed, the movie didn't really need to do anything original. It needed that consistency, and it needed to tell a story that seemed worthy of a sequel. I think it did both of those. It's not the greatest storytelling, but those visuals and sounds make up for that.
Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, crocodiles, and alligators. If Reynolds and Gosling ever are involved in a project where CGI alligators and crocodiles fight, I'm going to stop watching movies.
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