Consider the strong points of the original Blade Runner (1982), the mystery of the replicant hunt, the love story of Rick and Rachel, the elegiac death of Rutger Hauer. A little out of the ordinary to turn into a HBO/VHS classic, but it did.
To call 2049 a sequel is to damn with faint praise. Here the characters generally pick up where they left off. We have a new blade runner "K" (Ryan Gosling) and a new cop boss (Robin Wright). When K takes out an early model replicant (Dave Bautista), he starts investigating a mystery which leads him down memory holes, to orphanages, and ultimately to Harrison Ford.
With so many years elapsing, we have a narrative about what has happened, what is going on, what might occur in the future. In that aspect, it's like the middle part of a trilogy, which is fitting for the original to set up and pays good homage. A good new character arrives towards the end in Jared Leto. We'll see him again.
Better than the original? No, but good in its own right. Director Denis Villanueve and Director of Photography Roger Deakins make this an event suitable for the big screen.
A little slow at time, and that reminded me of Arrival, scrolling out the action and reveals as long as possible.
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