Film Review: Blade Runner 2049 is bland beauty

Blade Runner 2049 is a gorgeous film, if you like the noir variety. It is also a nice peek into a plausible future, where the distinction between humans and robots is all but lost. Like every good sci-fi film, at its heart are philosophical questions, in this case, when does a species become real? Is it when it can continue to regenerate? Or is it when it acquires consciousness of its identity? Or is it when it decides to fight for itself?  

The latest Blade Runner does not shy away from weaving these questions into the story. Unfortunately, it does not reflect on them, either. As a result, the film is lacking in a soul, where it could have had a very moving one, relying instead on potential scientific inventions and their ability to alter life as we see it today.

The film starts with K, a replicant or human like robot played by Ryan Gosling, on a mission to destroy the previous versions of replicants, which have acquired their own consciousness and want to fight for their freedom. Finding replicants, however, is no easy task since they are just like human beings to look at. One lead into where he might find other replicants, however, leads Gosling on a mind-altering journey that ends up with him eventually fighting for rather than against them.

Despite the interesting plotline, the film moves at a slow pace. Part of this is deliberate, I suppose, as the director wants to go over the sci-fi aspects in some detail, while quickly skimming over the more mundane parts. The speed of the film, is still not justified, however, even though every frame looks great. Also, there are no side plots to the film, which could beef up the main story, making it seem somehow lacking.

And since we are on the story, one point about the obsession with ‘the one’. Finding a saviour called ‘the one’ was started by the Matrix in, wait for this – 1999. It is 18 years since. But it seems that films just can’t get enough of it. Thankfully, there is a twist to the idea in Blade Runner. However, there is still a lot of time devoted to the protagonist's discovery of self. By the time he comes to speed with his version of things, the audience has already guessed it, since they have been dutifully handed down this plot in an endless number of films over the years.

This is a pity, because the film had so much to work with.  

Fem Review: Women have some kick ass parts in this film. Robin Wright, most notably so. Even with little screen time, she is great to watch.