Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is everything its predecessor wasn’t quite. It’s a visual kaleidoscope of colours and technology, and it’s groundbreaking in its story development. Once again, Denis Villeneuve proves himself to be a master of filmmaking as he crafts some of the most unique aspects of a film this century. The music score manages to be faithful to the original, and yet it sounds sharper and more gritty, representing the decline in quality of the dystopian environment. The cinematography is breathtaking, and is up there with some of the best ever, paired with the vibrant colours that flow effortlessly throughout the film. The plot is again faithful to the original in its simplicity and great execution, yet for me it manages to build perfectly off of the first one. There is no huge war, no huge explosions, no unbelievable deaths, just an officer who after facing the hard truth, finally managed to do something useful with his artificial life. The character of K (played by Ryan Gosling in what I believe is his best performance) is probably one of the best portrayals of loneliness ever put to the screen. He is constantly living under an illusion consciously in the first half of the film, and he knows he truly has nobody. Even once he “solves” the case and successfully helps Deckard, he is still left with the tragedy that he is effectively useless to the Replicant rebels. He still possesses the knowledge that his human name given by Joi was programmed into her. He is still left with the fact that he is just a walking piece of metal. He truly has no one, effectively, he is no one. I could honestly go on about this film forever. It’s an example of an artistic masterpiece put to the screen, and it’s a landmark in the futuristic genre, and could possibly go down as the greatest dystopian film ever made. Everyone performs so brilliantly, and the story is perfectly captured by award winning cinematography. Stunning.