Thursday, October 19, 2017

Blade Runner 2049

Officer K (Ryan Gosling) flies to some remote farm where he finds Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), a replicant.  Though K is willing to arrest Sapper and take him in, Sapper decides to resist.  The brawl is vicious and K is unusually tough.  After he has dealt with Sapper, K notices a flower next to a dead tree.  His scanners show a crate buried.  He calls for a dig team and then reports back to HQ.  It turns out that K is a replicant and must pass a personality test to demonstrate he is still working inside parameters.
 
The Tyrell Corporation collapsed shortly after the events of the original movie and was purchased by Niander Wallace.  Wallace has discovered that Tyrell made a replicant that could sexually reproduce!  Her name was Rachel.  The movie is a competition between Wallace's top lieutenant, Luv, and Officer K to find the offspring of Rick Deckard and Rachel.
 
Harrison Ford doesn't appear for an hour and a half, so Gosling has to carry this film.  Not being a Gosling fan, I'd say he fell short.  It was interesting that the main character is a replicant and his primary love interest is a hologram.  This was kind of interesting and one finds Joi (Ana de Armas) to be enjoyable.  However, this turns on its head when K runs into a 3D add for the Joi home companion; she was just a well-designed program, nothing more, and yet he had invested himself in her.  Sad revelation.  However, he's a replicant and has no soul.  Really sucks the meaning out of the relationship.
 
Though I had been very excited for the release of the original Blade Runner (1982), I was indifferent when I finally saw it.  Deckard was actually bad at his job and the pacing was glacial.  Officer K is better at the job than Deckard but the pacing has not improved.
 
Wait for this to come to Netflix or cable.

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