Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

[4815162342]

I personally didn't see much difference between the two films' use of the tech.

[WrathOfHan]

 

9/10 | A-

[That One Girl]

I am grateful that I am alive to see Blade Runner 2049 in theaters.

 

A+++++

[filmlover]

The original Blade Runner has long been my favorite movie of all time so I was both excited and nervous about this at the same time. I'm pleased to say that this lives up to expectations. Denis Villeneuve has crafted a sequel that very much feels like it takes place in the same cerebral universe despite more than three decades passing and the vast number of technological advancements since. Like Ridley Scott's film, this is sci-fi that doesn't aim to get the adrenaline pumping as much as it gets the brain to do so. The visual effects/production design are just as impressive as in its predecessor and Roger Deakins' cinematography is, always, a beauty to behold. This is definitely Ryan Gosling's movie all the way, and his multi-layered work here reinforces the notion that he's one of the best, most chameleon-like actors working today. The rest of the cast is good too, with Ana de Armas (whose resemblance to Felicity Jones is uncanny), Robin Wright, Sylvia Hoeks, Mackenzie Davis, and Dave Bautista all adding something despite varying screentime. Heck, even Jared Leto mostly works, and that's saying something. And of course there's Harrison Ford, who is excellent and feels present even when he's not onscreen (which is...more often than not). Villeneuve has quickly established himself as one of my favorite directors ever. A

[Water Bottle]

A film that surpasses the original. Plus there's that weird hologram-replicant sex scene.

 

B+

[somebody85]

1 hour ago, Water Bottle said:

Plus there's that weird hologram-replicant sex scene

We finally got to see what would have happened in Her. A likely evolution. Thought that was really well done.

[The Stingray]

My only niggle was that the score could have been more memorable and less overbearing. All in all it was an incredible experience, though.

 

So good to see a big budget sci-fi film that respects mood and pacing, and isn't all about explosions and fast cuts and no room to breathe.

 

Villeneuve is the Man.
 

[somebody85]

Someones explanations of the films main themes that I saw on Youtube which I thought were really interesting (and probably right).

Who is K/Joe?
There was no real decoy, it was purely on paper. K/Joe is utterly, completely, unequivocally unremarkable. Thus his name - Joe, as in an Average Joe.

Was Joi's love for K real or was it just a feature built into the product?
Joi does not possess a soul, she is completely fake. She is the other side of the replicant coin and is made solely to please and coddle her owner/lover. The giant pink Joi on the bridge calls K Joe as well, and her entire branding scheme is that she'll be anything you want. K wanted to feel special, so his Joi always reinforced this to him, but it was never real. Joi is K's fleeting dream of being special, and once her emanator is destroyed, K learns he is not special.

Is Deckard a human or a replicant?
Wallace posed a question about whether Deckard was moved by love or programming, to me there's no doubt whatsoever Deckard is fully human. The original movie is about a bad man finding his humanity through the grace of a machine. Wallace's question is not a literal "Are you human or robot?" question, but pondering what the difference is, if love is just a chemical, and if we are products of biological programming or something higher like a soul. The ultimate takeaway is that it does not matter, in fact the only thing that matters is what we choose to do with our lives.

The meaning of the film and K/Joe's journey:
In summary, 2049 is about dreams and delusions. K wants desperately to be special, Joi tells him this constantly, and he instantly assumes all the evidence points to him because it's his dream. He becomes deluded and forces himself into the situation even as it destroys him. He thinks this is what it means to be human, to grapple with one's humanity. He is torn between two sides telling him what his identity is and should be - the LAPD who informs his identity as that of a slave, and the resistance which informs his identity as that of a free replicant. When his delusion is shattered by meeting the pink Joi, he chooses to follow his own path and not let anyone tell him who he is or what he should do. He makes the most human decision and takes his life into his own hands. He saves Deckard for the same reason Roy did. He wanted someone to remember him, for his final decision that fully validates him as human to not be in vain. No one else gave him his identity, only he did, and his sacrifice ensured forever that he was by every metric a human being, even if the world would ultimately forget him.

[That One Girl]

I need to ask if anyone else got teary eyed at the end cause I don't wanna be alone on this.

[Hatebox]

It's a small point but I wish there had been a lot more street level scenes. That's what made the original come to life, and they had such a great playground to explore in this one but went for almost entirely big landscape shots. Good-looking ones, no doubt, but in a world where absolutely no-one is impressed by CGI anymore they really should have gone lower more often.

[Valonqar]

IMO, K was special but not in the way he thought. he thought that being Deckard's son would make him special but then we find out that "the miracle", Deckard's daughter (a human/replicant hybrid or whatever), is not special at all but has some condition that makes her weaker than either humans or replicants (she has some immunity deficiency and can't go outside or something). So parentage/lineage doesn't make one special (both the Replicant rebels and Leto imagined "the miracle" to be some super strong thing and not a weakling she really is) but it's the choices. K became special when he decided to help Deckard reunite with the weak-ass hybrid daughter. 

[4815162342]

1 hour ago, Valonqar said:

 Deckard's daughter (a human/replicant hybrid or whatever), is not special at all but has some condition that makes her weaker than either humans or replicants (she has some immunity deficiency and can't go outside or something). So parentage/lineage doesn't make one special (both the Replicant rebels and Leto imagined "the miracle" to be some super strong thing and not a weakling she really is) but it's the choices.

 

You assume she actually does have it, instead of it being part of the elaborate cover to basically hide her under everyone's nose.

[Valonqar]

4 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

 

You assume she actually does have it, instead of it being part of the elaborate cover to basically hide her under everyone's nose.

Unless they were to reveal that she was OK in the sequel, I take it that it's real and it works, IMO, because it subverts the cliche that StarChild (Hybrid) is an equivalent to a superhuman. Both replicants and humans expected something extra and it turns out she just isn't. I don't know, that works for me much better than turning out that she's a super warrior with super powers or whatever shit that we keep seeing in cheap movies and TV shows. 

Edited October 7, 2017 by Valonqar

[4815162342]

Just now, Valonqar said:

Unless they were to reveal that she was OK in the sequel, I take it that it's real and it works, IMO, because it subverts the cliche that StarChild is an equivalent to a superhuman. Both replicants and humans expected something extra and it turns out she just isn't. I don't know, that works for me much better than turning out that she's a super warrior with super powers or whatever shit that we keep seeing in cheap movies and TV shows. You know, Reneseme. 

 

Just because she doesn't actually have a crippling immune deficiency doesn't make her a messiah god.

 

The fact that she was hidden now implies that her deficiency is faked, and the best way to sell that is to program her to believe it is real, so she is content to stay in her bubble home. That's the takeaway I got.

 

[Valonqar]

23 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

 

Just because she doesn't actually have a crippling immune deficiency doesn't make her a messiah god.

 

The fact that she was hidden now implies that her deficiency is faked, and the best way to sell that is to program her to believe it is real, so she is content to stay in her bubble home. That's the takeaway I got.

 

No, I'm saying that she isn't a messiah/miracle because she isn't what they hyped her to be. But you are right, she is totally not special even with faked deficiency. 

[4815162342]

2 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

No, I'm saying that she isn't a messiah/miracle because she isn't what they hyped her to be. But you are right, she is totally not special even with faked deficiency. 

 

In either case, I think the film does subvert the common trope.

 

Which is why the scene where the female replicant gang leader's monologue about the coming revolution and all that jazz felt so goddamn out of place in the movie.

[Valonqar]

Just now, 4815162342 said:

 

In either case, I think the film does subvert the common trope.

 

Which is why the scene where the female replicant gang leader's monologue about the coming revolution and all that jazz felt so goddamn out of place in the movie.

Yes, it definitely does. 

 

The gang leader scene could be a set up for sequel that will never happen. Or just a Chekhov gun that didn't fire. 

[CoolioD1]

this was a great sequel to one of my favourite films, lars and the real girl.

[Barnack]

On 10/6/2017 at 10:54 AM, Goffe said:

Did someone roll their eyes hard when Hologram Girlfriend told K put her in the stick and then K proceeded to say he would lose her for good if the stick was destroyed? It lessened the impact of the destruction of the stick A LOT cause it made me expect her eventual demise. Terrible piece of writing that was.

The impact of the destruction of the stick would be nill without exposition about that fact too, being a virtual being everyone would assume she still exist in the last backup on the cloud.

[Goffe]

She specifically says to erase her "memory" and put her in the stick. It would pretty dumb for the audiences to assume she had a backup. What would be the point of deleting her from the host machine if there was a backup? K was covering his tracks, so the existence of a backup would make that action useless.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Goffe