"Blade Runner 2049" review

Resisting. Urge. To. Make. Electric. Boogaloo. Joke.

The first 15 minutes or so of “Blade Runner 2049” are a decompressed distillation of just about everything that the movie sets out to accomplish across the span of its substantial length of over 2½ hours.

Sequel to the 80’s cult classic that visually defined the dystopian styling of cyberpunk as we know it, the film thrusts the audience back into the futuristic world of the blade runners, elite police officers commissioned to destroy self aware biological automatons known as replicants under the notion of “retiring” a machine, and immediately hones in on the tonally cynical and tragic nature born of instinctively relatable circumstances that define its setting, concept, and impact in the modern day world that may not have been ready for it back when it first landed in 1982.

Ryan Gosling plays K, an advanced replicant granted special freedoms in exchange for his service as a blade runner, and after retiring a subject by the name of Sapper (Dave Bautista) whom wanted to simply live out his days in peace, he discovers evidence at the scene that draw him into a grander conspiracy that contradicts everything understood about the nature of replicants along with the order of nature as man has imposed upon its society.

In this first scene, the irony of a hiring a replicant to hunt his own kind is not lost on the film; K approaches everything with a pensive outlook, understanding the disgusting hypocrisy of the system that he helps to perpetuate but resigned to the reality that he does so to ensure his own self preservation.

Rejected by his own kind for obvious reasons, he takes pride in the praise of his efficiency by his superior officer played by Robin Wright, until she callously reminds him that he’s not a real human being, regarding him with the same condescending affection one might display towards a pet.

Despised by his own kind as a traitor and the humans that use him as a tool, he only finds solace in the holographic arms of Joi, his artificial intelligence home assistant and girlfriend (Ana de Armas), who’s illusion of intimacy and companionship are shattered everytime he receives an electronic message of communication.

The subdued frustration of being allowed to live but never truly develop a self sense of identity leaves the self ponderous and very clearly self loathing K in a haze that forces him to own the mantle of heartless machine enforced upon him by society and Gosling’s ability to carry that performance across the unraveling mystery that can shatter human society, that ironically takes him to places that make him feel more alive than ever, is a terrifically executed balance of stoicism, melancholy, internalized anguish, and brutalizing frustrations over the stubborn indomitability of the human spirit despite the harsh and disgusting places that our basic instincts take us.

His powerful performance is balanced well by the cast surrounding him but is also the perfect symbol of the exact type of beautifully crafted yet reserved and meticulous production that “Blade Runner 2049” is for better or worse.

Any fears that I had of the movie boiling itself down to being a watered down pulpy sci-fi popcorn action flick was quickly torpedoed as director Denis Villanueve has managed to essentially make a $150 million studio backed arthouse film.

The plot cuts deeply to the questions of what defines life, where it begins and ends, and what validates personal identity in a potentially subjective reality in the contemplative and exploratory but indictment lacking fashion that allowed the original “Blade Runner” to grow out its legacy and that made its source novel’s original author, Philip K. Dick, considered a master of 20^th century science fiction.

With a powerfully winding and satisfying mystery emotionally anchored by the tragedy of K, the film manages to tell its own unique epic scale story line with relatable intimate hooks that build off if its predecessors themes and organically flesh out the world in such a way that enhances both films while managing to still stand on its own two legs independently. They even manage to address the infamous mystery of first film protagonist Deckard’s (reprised powerfully by Harrison Ford) identity in a meaningful capacity that doesn’t pick a side for those desiring their own interpretation of whether he is a replicant or not.

Where its emotional and intellectual resonance may shine more brightly than almost any film released this year, genre or otherwise, “Blade Runner 2049” is however unfortunately marred by a number of mechanical flaws in its storytelling that unfortunately hold it back from the perfection that it seems poised to achieve at moments.

With so much of the mystery focused and filtered through K’s perspective, a lot of plot elements tied into the story’s events get left to fall to way side; hints of an organized replicant rebellion with massive implications don’t go particularly far beyond a plot device to realign K with where the plot needs him to be, a climax that I can only imagine was intended as a self reflection and acceptance of K’s identity as a tool comes across as a bit perfunctory in execution, and a few detours here and there that had the right endgame in mind but don’t quite land home as hard as they may have been aiming.

The biggest misstep was probably an attempt to provide a human face to the film’s antagonizing force in the form of corporate CEO Niander Wallace, played by Jared Leto.

Unfolding the scope of the plot in a palatable capacity for its protagonist already left a few hiccups in the movie’s narrative stemming from underdevelopment but Leto’s bizarre performance, equal parts detached and overly hammy, of an eccentric man with an undeserved god complex spouting off the faux-mythological significance of his replicant manufacturing company feels needless and out of place in a film that successfully bends over backwards to make a machine struggling to embrace his inhumanity feel human and sympathetic without beating in its themes over the head with a stick.

Such a list of flaws may seem numerous and substantial but in the grand scheme of things, the most damage they do to the film is detract from its overall length. While I admire and appreciate that the movie utilizes almost every second to its advantage, there’s no denying that the toll it takes from its flaws add up to a movie that starts to feel spent by the time of its climax. A mere 10 minute trim would have gone a long way.

“Blade Runner 2049” could have benefited from just a little bit of tightening but its sheer audacity to just give a damn in the age of half baked cinematic universes and social media marketing dictation and simply tell a thoughtful, meaningful, and challenging hard science fiction story with all of the necessary resources allocated toward allowing it to be the absolute best possible version of itself, box office be damned, simply can’t be overlooked.

It may not be for the casual moviegoer despite all of the deceiving levels of flash put into its production, but “Blade Runner 2049” is a masterpiece of its craft and an increasingly harder to find specimen of its class, even with its minor but noticeable imperfections.

8 Electric Sheep out of 10