ADDED TO 'GREATEST FAVORITES': Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

To reiterate the purpose of my ‘Greatest Favorites’: this personal catalogue is reserved for films that I not only love, but films that I also believe stand the test of time as genuinely great films. If you’ve seen the list, you’ll see films from the current decade like Boyhood and The Tree of Life on the list. Perhaps it is somewhat irresponsible of me to add such recent releases, but we are approaching the end of the decade in a couple of years, so I can justify those. That said, I feel somewhat silly to add Blade Runner 2049, as it is only a year old at the time I’m writing this – even then, I only waited this long just to let the one-year mark pass by to give myself at least a little bit of credibility, because I’ve been eager to write this all year.

I am about to speak in what may sound like shameless hyperbole to some, which is all-too prevalent throughout Internet criticism, but I hope I can assure you that this is my sincere and honest opinion: I truly believe that Blade Runner 2049 is going to go down in history as not only one of the greatest sequels of all time, but one of the top five science fiction films of the 21^st Century. In traditional elitist-cinephile fashion, I could almost say that its less-than-stellar box office performance alone was an indication of this.

We are taken to Los Angeles in the titular year of 2049 – 30 years after the events of the first film. The world is more artificial than ever, from vegetation to the people (you’ll wonder who is really human in this film, if at all) all thanks to the Wallace Corporation, the successor of Tyrell. Not only has founder Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) prevented famine with the advent of synthetic farming, but he has also created a new and revolutionary line of replicants.

Then there’s K (Ryan Gosling), LAPD Blade Runner. He is a replicant, and a rather lonely one. He lives in the midst of the oppressive neon of 2049 A.D. Los Angeles, demonized by the public as a ‘Skinjob’ (a derogatory term in this world). His only means of solace is Joi (Ana de Armas), an artificial person designed to be the ultimate sex pot of a girlfriend. K has just retired a replicant hiding out in a distant farm. There, he discovers a buried crate full of replicant female bones. The cause of death: childbirth. Childbirth from not just a replicant, but from Rachael (from the original Blade Runner). Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright), K’s boss, is distraught from the notion that replicants can reproduce. She orders K to destroy all links to this discovery, sending him into one hell of a journey through the decaying corpse of this modern world, in desperate need of some kind of miracle.

Of course, we can’t talk about 2049 without addressing its seminal iconic 1982 predecessor. Interestingly enough, it’s not only been a year since 2049 was released, but this also marks the first time I watched Blade Runner almost exactly 10 years ago…or when I attempted to watched it, more appropriately. When I first watched Blade Runner in 2008, I absolutely loathed it. Nowadays, I have fondly warmed up to it, and I certainly have no idea giving it recognition in the ‘Greatest Favorites’, but it is still somewhat of a flawed masterpiece – it wants to be an artful, existentialist meditation on the whole humanity vs. A.I. theme, but it also wants to be this slick neo-noir detective mystery-thriller, and I’ve always found that it just never quite finds that balance, sort of making the film awkwardly teeter-totter between how it wants to handle the material.

And here comes 2049, which achieves everything the original set out to accomplish. And then some.

From the very first frames of Blade Runner 2049, of that eye opening and the abstract overhead image of the synthetic farm, I was completely entranced, and the movie didn’t lose its grip once. This is a film where the viewer becomes a sponge, absorbing every single bit of atmosphere it has to offer. The production design is one of the primary driving forces of Blade Runner 2049. Every single environment is imagined to the smallest detail, every frame is meticulously and slavishly composed (there’s a very good reason this film won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Visual Effects), every sound is intensely intimate – this atmosphere is all further bolstered by an incredible score by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, filled with orgasmic waves of synth and threatening rumbles of bass. This movie is worth watching for the very look and sound of it alone – I can’t begin to tell you how much I regret not seeing it more than once in the theaters.

The original Blade Runner has one of my favorite production designs in all of movies. 2049 not only incorporates elements from its predecessor, but wisely expands on the film’s world. The technology in the hands of the characters have greatly improved, mainly the devices used to detect replicants. What once required a giant electronic device (which still looks futuristic) with a lengthy series of questions, all that’s used now is a palm-sized scanner – a simple look at the eye will reveal a serial number. Simple as that.

Blade Runner gave us all we needed in its gritty cyberpunk metropolis. Though 2049 does spend time here (albeit in a maturely refined portrayal), 2049 is much more concerned with what’s going on outside of Los Angeles, from the landfill of a landscape that was once San Diego to the desolate and highly radioactive Las Vegas. Though there are only a handful of locations here, they are all constructed right down to the most insignificant of set pieces, and the labor pays off, as every environment has its own unique look and identity – they are almost characters unto themselves.

But this is all icing on the cake, and it has much more flavor to offer than frosting. Each character cast perfectly – Gosling gives K vulnerability masked by stoicism, voluntarily walled off from those that surround him. Ana de Armas is indeed sexy as Joi, the holographic program designed for prurience, but she also fits K’s needs exceptionally well – the result is a character we forget isn’t real most of the time, not to mention being part of perhaps the most original sex scene in film history. Sylvia Hoeks’s Luv would make a great companion for Anton Chigurh, the terrifying entity of a man from No Country for Old Men. Though I don’t have much to say about Jared Leto, he gets the job done as the intellectually sinister Wallace. Finally, there’s good old Harrison Ford, an actor I’ve never been a fan of. Upon my recent revisit of 2049, though, I found a lot to appreciate in his reprisal of Deckard – keep a close eye on him when he is greeted by the reconstruction of Rachael. His eyes alone do all of the talking.

Equally important in 2049 is its story, which is equally as absorbing as the atmosphere, not to mention surprisingly moving (I dare you to try and not cry at the finale). Granted, it drops the neo-noir thriller vibe from the original Blade Runner, going for more of a standard mystery. Yes, 2049 is a slow film, but it is exceptionally well-paced, always keeping the viewer glued to their seat just to find out how each chapter is going to unravel. It’s like waking up on Christmas morning and unwrapping gifts one by one. There is some debatable fan service here and there, namely when K reviews the original Voight-Kampff test for Rachael, but it never once overtakes the material at hand.

This leads me to another point. As addressed, Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel, and it is my firm belief that a truly great sequel must not require its predecessor to fully function. Does it here? In that regard, I’ve already seen the original, so I can’t really say for sure. I can see how some audiences may be confused of the significance of Rachael and Deckard when they’re discussed, but with protagonist K being from now rather than then, I can see how this might relieve a viewer’s confusion.

Does 2049 top its legendary predecessor, in the grand scheme of things? That really depends on the viewer, and there’s plenty of room for debate, but I can’t deny that this is one of the most incredible, imaginative, and entrancing movies to come out in a while – double impressive that this is from a Hollywood film. For me, it’s a work of art in the truest sense of the term, a bona fide journey, and one hell of a masterpiece that I’ll never forget, and I doubt I’ll see a better sci-fi film for the remainder of the decade (at the very least). I’ve mentioned before that I see a great resurgence in sci-fi cinema. Blade Runner 2049 is the ultimate proof of my point.