Movie Review: 'Blade Runner 2049'

Really enjoyed 'Blade Runner 2049'. A good piece of slow burn quality Sci-Fi Noir that fits very much in with the original. And I really like that kind of Science Fiction.Having watched the original recently, there are a few callbacks to the original Ridley Scott film, which was fun to pick up on. Some more obvious than others. It still definitely rains a lot in the Los Angeles of the future too!

The film felt similar in some ways with director Denis Villeneuve's previous, 'Arrival', another film that stews away, and making the audience think a bit more with the narrative and themes up on the screen.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins has definitely brought his A game for this too! Everything just looks so great up on the screen. The use of lighting, shadows, and the way the camera is angled and pans around on scenes is just masterful.

The only minus from me is the music though. It does fit in well with the setting and felt like an evolution of the original Vangelis score, but in some scenes it's just so loud it takes you out of the moment. Unfortunately that seems to be a thing with Hans Zimmer scores these days! And is the case here as well.

There's been a lot of superlatives thrown at this movie, and whilst I do agree in general, I thought going in that it's ridden the hype train a bit too much and there's always a danger of setting expectations a bit too high as a result. But after watching it, most of it is certainly justified and is definitely worth going to see! Especially if you can watch it on the biggest screen you can to indulge in those great visuals! I do recommend watching the three Blade Runner short films beforehand, as they kind of fill in the gaps between the 2019 of the original and 2049 of the new film.

After 'Arrival' and now 'Blade Runner 2049', I can't wait to see Villeneuve's vision for his reimagining of 'Dune'. I do hope we get more films in a similiar vein!

****½/5