Blade Runner 2049

Near perfect sequel, expanded on everything the first did conceptually, emotionally and technically. Bleak, but moving as we follow the story of K, or Joe as he learns to love what's real, in a dystopian, decrepit landscape. Grand, cerebral and unfinished. Intro: title card, replicants are genetically engineered human recreations, retired by assasins also known as blade runners, humanity lives off synthetic farming and is ruled by a new corperation with replicants that follow orders. Isolated solar panels, a flying car in a neon foggy city. What's not to like here. There were ambiguites and mystery in real answers to serve personal interpretation, which I found interesting. This is done to convey the blurry lines between biology and artifice and evolutionary or written design. However, the last scene of deckard finally meeting his daughter, with K lying in the serene snow accepting death, remains harrowing and beautiful. Given poetic license, this ending brought the blade runner to a somber, morose end. The cinematography of villneuve sweeping through the city's dark vistas, orange pastel desserts or isolated grand architectures was a feat to see on the cinema screen. The Avatar digital girlfriend Joi, and her death was also visually and emotionally paradoxical yet deeply saddening, as love was explored in its most devoid environment. Her scream of I love you before being bitcrushed into nothingness was the death of K's soul, or the other half of it, portrayed violently and effectively. The writing alone is rich, layered and topical, the concept alone of a pocket partner realised on screen, both disturbing yet alluring. K is hated by most as as a skin job, a murderer of his own kind, and finds comfort in the systems of false reality he's become accustomed to. Yet Ana de Armas' performance is beautiful and realistic, as this world of nuance and decadence is explored. In the beginning K is led to believe he has no soul, kills mercilessly and serves as a replicant and good dog for the futurist colonialist force of the Wallace corperation; painted in matching surrealist synth sound design and scale. As he begins to look beyond the surface level of the cells interlinked by this captalist shackling greed of Earth, K finds a greater purpose and reality by believing he is a real son of childbirth, of Rachael and Dekcard, a miracle of love in the harsh 2049. Portrayed by the modern day Harrison ford: Ryan gosling, he leads with tenacity and slightly disturbed slick aura, allowing audiences to envelop themselves in the story through his stellar performance. Following the childbirth story in this classic crime thriller blade runner story, finding the real horse inscribed with the date of birth of the child, from his dreams thought to be implants, K escapes his menial servitude and guides humanity to a freed world. However, the memories are all from a daughter, introduced in a short scene, who created the memories because she actually lived them. Complicated, and rushed, yet serene and poetic. Whilst this is more real, and crushing to K, as deckard can finally re-unite with his daughter; the interaction is behind glass, the slaves are not freed and nothing is truly resolved, as an ending trilogy piece is pivotal to give a full circle ending to the brilliant source material. I found myself constantly re-interprerting the story, and the character K, Deckard, whether they were human or replicant. which became fragmented as real answers could be beneficial to a finished story. The colional metaphor works is K is half human half replicant, and loses dramatic humanity by not fully telling the story. I was Begging him to tell deckard you're my dad, and give him the horse but overall this allowed less analysis and more speculation on what the film wanted to say, exactly. Given more time, more box office success this could have been a masterpiece in a trilogy of dystopian cinema. Watching the films together in necessary in my opinion, and despite some qualms with the ending, it was still worth my time and made me think about the world and humanity differently. I hope these trilogy problems don't creep into Dune 2, because this man's mind and ambition cannot be contained into one singular story. Thank God we are all born by mothers, and we still have hope. This film more than any other has permeated my dreams and nightmares, a testament to its powerful written, visual storytelling. A disjointed society and family re-united.