Tin_ear

The spastic dancing is more comical than impressive, which isn't really a big deal, but the general presentation of this remake pales in comparison to the vibrant, trippy atmosphere of the original. This is more theme-heavy and has more character development than the original, which is good. However, it seems like this was made more out of nostalgia than anything else, not that I mind a Bowie reference or two. Is it better than the original? Story-wise yes, but it falls flat when it is trying to be dramatic or scary.

A lot of the ideas don't work smoothly. The slow-mo shots look like something out of a cheap nineties film, the burdensome political subplots don't add anything, and some of the characters are frankly unnecessary. The gimmicky casting of one of the central characters evokes the old-man makeup from the Exorcist, returning again to the issue of needless nostalgia.

Acting and cinematography is pretty good, though these actors aren't given anything to work with.

It all falls apart due to aimless writing and direction. Blade Runner 2049 is long and has some self-indulgent scenes, and yet several plot threads are introduced and then forgotten about completely by the climax, as if they got scrapped to shorten the run time. Was there supposed to be a sequel? Several times in the film, a character is left alive or transported for no apparent reason, the script haphazardly tossed together. Supposedly dramatic and profound dialogue feels cheesy and lacks subtlety. The primary antagonist is boring, one-dimensional, and has no clear motivations or logical end goals despite rambling for scene after scene, while a side character summarizes their entire backstory within two minutes of meeting a stranger. There is no consistency.

Blade Runner 2049 is simultaneously both fan-servicey and ignorant what made the first film so beloved. The beauty of the original Blade Runner was that the film didn't explain every little detail about the plot; it was a grounded sci-fi tale. Blade Runner 2049 intentionally spoils the charm of the original's ambiguity, and has a lot of generic action scenes and silly technobabble only there to advance the plot. Sure, there's lot of random homages to other films in 2049, but I'm still not sure what new commentary on technology, themes, or philosophy the filmmakers were getting at. It just threw in some allusions banal current-day stuff like AI, holograms, and climate change. But it's basically just a rehash of old ideas.

The original asked simple yet profound questions related to nuanced issues related existence and what defines humanity. 2049 poses stupid moral dilemmas that don't even make sense within the established rules of the world. And that's the larger issue. 2049 pointlessly complicates the canon for no emotional or intellectual payoff.

You'll never look at Billy Joel the same way again, that's for damn sure.

The fact that millionaires regularly treat session musicians so poorly goes to show that the music industry is even sleazier than we ever thought possible.