Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Deep And Artsy!

★★★★☆

Don’t get fooled by the trailers or the poster that this is a Star War-like action-packed sci-fi spectacular. The action sequences are in fact very few. But yeah, ‘Blade Runner 2049’ is a spectacular absolutely, for it’s visually stunning and narratively satisfying! The running time is more than two hours long but the whole journey is never boring. You get drawn, flabbergasted and fascinated throughout thanks to the haunting score and stylish pictures, or say, lighting and cinematography. And of course Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford have both put on decent and captivating performances in such an artsy, philosophical sci-fi masterpiece to date.

With ‘Blade Runner 2049’, Director Denis Villeneuve has once again proved that he’s one of the best filmmakers diligently working in Hollywood. High quantity doesn’t necessarily mean bad quality though. Denis has been making impressive films at an impressive speed, like 2010’s ‘Incendies’, 2013’s ‘Prisoners’, 2015’s ‘Sicario’ and last year’s ‘Arrival’. All those are like a showoff of how to make a film that is both technically ingenious and narratively inspiring, as an eye-opener to blow one’s mind. I just can’t wait to see his next work!

The film challenges the idea of what it really takes to be so-called human. Would you still be able to tell the difference between a human and a replicant, a sophisticated machine if you will, when IT could think and feel like a human, and was even biologically capable of bearing a baby? Would you still be so sure about who you really are, and what is real and what is not, if your memories were all made up and implanted in your head right when you were born? And what seems scary is that what we think makes us different from a machine, our soul so to speak, is in fact merely the delusion based on our memories and what we believe we are, that could be rather vague and elusive indeed. The film bombards me with a lot of questions that I can barely answer at all. It makes me confused and uncomfortable for quite some time since it’s basically attacking my ego and what I strongly believe. And that’s a good thing I guess, because sometimes it’s more vital to ask questions than long for an answer!

To better understand what’s going on in ‘Blade Runner 2049’, you gotta check out the original one back in 1982 beforehand, which I’m not really into even though I’ve watched it three times or so. And to better appreciate it, you gotta keep in mind that it is not to blow you away with action scenes and whatnot, but to upset you with deep thoughts like how complicated it feels to be human, the only animals on Earth I guess that would kill with smiles!