as i write this review i’m sitting on the floor of my room. it’s pitch black — the cold white light of my phone paints my thumbs and nothing else. i am tapping pixels into existence on a slice of glass in a sea of darkness. for the last 30 minutes my noise cancelling headphones have been looping the soundtrack to this movie.
https://open.spotify.com/track/33MhyD4tOUTPDrJtUOmlzy?si=0ILn8nk1QqOVHbuZOIOpww&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5kSUsy5FU3Wcxd4DBvXFm4
this is one of those movies, like annihilation and civil war, that has incredible individual pieces but which fails to come together to form a compelling whole.
the music, the visuals, the sound design, the advertisements, the side characters, the visual effects, the wide angle shots, the settings — stunning, world class, awe-inducing. they absolutely nailed the vibe, and as an deep lover of cyberpunk i adored those parts — the best parts — of this movie. there are many scenes from this movie i will NEVER forget — the emotional stability test script, “are you lonely?”, the fight in the waves, the joi body morph, vegas, the shot glass scene — and for that alone this movie deserves high praise.
but K, our main character, is designed to show zero emotion, speak minimally, and move incredibly slowly — not the most fun of choices. of course these traits are relevant to his chaeacter and creatively different from the original blade runner, but to that i say “pick a better character to showcase the story” — you dont gotta pick such a straightedge replicant. if you think about the arc of the movie as a whole, they really could have chosen a more expressive character!
and the plot…. very forgettable. vague and mysterious but in a cheap “hide information from the viewer” way, really corny bigcorp villain (who could have been so fucking cool btw they should have made him a proper evil tech ceo), jumps in investigative logic that had us pause the movie at a few points and discuss why K decided to go to the place he was currently at, and plenty of “zero reason they would have left him alive there”.
the story did not pack any kind of punch for me — this thing flies on vibes alone. but fly it does
…
a system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked within one stem…
have you ever been in an institution? cells
do they keep you in a cell? cells
when you’re not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? cells
what’s it like to hold the hand of someone you love? interlinked
did they teach you to feel finger to finger? interlinked
what’s it like to hold your child in your arms? interlinked
as i write this review i’m sitting on the floor of my room. it’s pitch black — the cold white light of my phone paints my thumbs and nothing else. i am tapping pixels into existence on a slice of glass in a sea of darkness. for the last 30 minutes my noise cancelling headphones have been looping the soundtrack to this movie.
https://open.spotify.com/track/33MhyD4tOUTPDrJtUOmlzy?si=0ILn8nk1QqOVHbuZOIOpww&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5kSUsy5FU3Wcxd4DBvXFm4
this is one of those movies, like annihilation and civil war, that has incredible individual pieces but which fails to come together to form a compelling whole.
the music, the visuals, the sound design, the advertisements, the side characters, the visual effects, the wide angle shots, the settings — stunning, world class, awe-inducing. they absolutely nailed the vibe, and as an deep lover of cyberpunk i adored those parts — the best parts — of this movie. there are many scenes from this movie i will NEVER forget — the emotional stability test script, “are you lonely?”, the fight in the waves, the joi body morph, vegas, the shot glass scene — and for that alone this movie deserves high praise.
but K, our main character, is designed to show zero emotion, speak minimally, and move incredibly slowly — not the most fun of choices. of course these traits are relevant to his chaeacter and creatively different from the original blade runner, but to that i say “pick a better character to showcase the story” — you dont gotta pick such a straightedge replicant. if you think about the arc of the movie as a whole, they really could have chosen a more expressive character!
and the plot…. very forgettable. vague and mysterious but in a cheap “hide information from the viewer” way, really corny bigcorp villain (who could have been so fucking cool btw they should have made him a proper evil tech ceo), jumps in investigative logic that had us pause the movie at a few points and discuss why K decided to go to the place he was currently at, and plenty of “zero reason they would have left him alive there”.
the story did not pack any kind of punch for me — this thing flies on vibes alone. but fly it does
…
a system of cells interlinked within cells interlinked within cells interlinked within one stem…
have you ever been in an institution? cells
do they keep you in a cell? cells
when you’re not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? cells
what’s it like to hold the hand of someone you love? interlinked
did they teach you to feel finger to finger? interlinked
what’s it like to hold your child in your arms? interlinked
12
