Only Minor spoilers ahead.
This is my first film review, so hopefully you enjoy it.
What constitutes a soul? Is it self awareness? The ability to love? Or perhaps predetermined purposing by a creator? These are just some of the questions that Villeneuve does not hold back on, and it drives home hard for us as a society, and how we move forwards in our development of artificial intelligence.
Blade Runner 2049 is the real deal. Director Denis Villeneuve and Cinematographer Roger Deakins overwhelm the senses with challenging and often provocative storytelling and masterfully realized visuals, galvanized by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfischs' electric score.
There is a high bar set as a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 cult classic, Blade Runner, widely regarded as one of the greatest Science Fiction films of all time, and a personal favourite of mine.
Just like the original, 2049 is set in Los Angeles, only 30 years later. The film stars Ryan Gosling as Officer K, a Replicant Blade Runner in the L.A.P.D, who stumbles across information that leads him down a trail to find the elusive former Blade Runner Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, the lead character of the 1982 original. Ana de Armas plays K's girlfriend, Joi, a mass produced artificial intelligence. Jared Leto plays Niander Wallace, the creator of a new line of Replicants. Between the two films, a Replicant uprising in Los Angeles ended with all Replicants being outlawed, until a new, more compliant breed were created by Wallace.
The storytelling is phenomenal. Without giving too much away, the story focuses on K's existential crisis as he tries to figure out what it means to have purpose and a soul, while piecing together a case that could raise more questions than answers.
"To be born is to have a soul."
"You've been getting on fine without one."
Jared Leto gave a nuanced performance as the egomaniac, Niander Wallace, who's treatment of his Replicant creations raise very relevant and uncomfortable questions for our society, as to what we class as slavery and how we approach the grey areas of granting moral status to what we may or may not deem alive and intelligent. The film's questions will only become more relevant as our capacity for creating artificial intelligence increases. These questions are amplified by Gosling and de Armas' onscreen relationship, that challenged the ideas of what love is, not unlike what we saw in Spike Jonze's "Her" in 2013.
Harrison Ford gave a stand out performance, returning as an older and more jaded Deckard. Aside from a very impressive physical performance, Ford's screen time includes emotionally charged scenes as well as some much needed wit and comic relief alongside Gosling. The pair show real chemistry, and it is Ford's best performance in years.
Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfischs' score is a brooding, ambient powerhouse, atmospherically charged as it forms a symbiosis with the equally intoxicating visuals. It builds on Vangelis' original hardboiled, jazz infused synths... and then some.
Deep, resonant synth notes rise and fall, a breathing organism who's cries echo through the expanse like the headlights of Officer K's flying "Spinner" car, scattering in the blackout smog. Vacant industrial percussion tingles like spoons dropped in glasses. These contrast with vibrant electric hums that bend seductively through the compositions, a sure nod to the deliciously noir, jazz club influence of Vangelis' original 1982 score.
Some tracks such as "That's why we believe" have an open, twinkling soundscape that reminds me very much of Thomas Newman's scores in "Road to Perditon" and "American Beauty".
Zimmer is a master of tension building, and does not disappoint when the scene requires, with vacant ringing, rising to pulsating crunches and a screeching digital static that grips you by the throat and drives you into your seat like a bad case of sleep paralysis (In a good way?!).
The inclusion of Frank Sinatra's "One for my baby (and one for the road)" playing in a holographic jukebox during a quiet scene with Gosling and Ford was a nice touch as an ironic, rose-tinted contrast to the bleak look of the world.
To say that Blade Runner through the eyes of visionary cinematographer Roger Deakins is a marvel is an understatement. Deakins captures the dystopian Los Angeles with bleak blue and grey smog penetrated by bursts of hyper-saturated neon. There is a beautiful scene where Gosling is walking through a deserted courtyard, with dust that lit the screen up bright orange. Shot style was brilliant, with a major focus on symmetrical framing that we rarely see, and it was masterful. There is a standout action scene with Ford and Gosling in an abandoned casino where a hologram of Elvis Presley is glitching on and off in a dark room, providing one of the most thrilling and visually unique chase scenes I have seen since the famous club scene in Michael Mann's "Collateral" in 2004.
Massive credit goes to the design department and visual effects crew. In many ways, the visual style and design of Blade Runner has been the most memorable feature since the original, largely created by visionary Industrial Designer and Concept Artist, Syd Mead. 2049 holds true to the retro '80s look of the original, while expanding it to make sense in the modern time. Technology is a mix of digital and analogue as a nod to the original. The introduction of 3D holograms was a nice touch that added to the claustrophobic nature of the LA streets.
The architecture remains imposing and monolithic, just like the brutalist inspired original. I give special praise to the hammerhead shaped police headquarters that has to be one of the most terrifying and iconic buildings in recent film.
There really is so much more to say about the film as it is just brilliant on so many levels, but I won't spoil it for you by revealing too much. I hope this convinced you to watch it if you have not already.
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Cheers
Image credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/mediaviewer/rm1083975424