In what must be the apex of reviving brand names for the whole 1980s nostalgia trip crowd, this is a direct sequel to Ridley Scott's original cyberpunk noir. After all it's a cult favourite rather than something that was a hit in its own time. In a time when reboots and fraudulent sequels made decades later are all over the place, this is one that I had no real interest in visiting. But at the same time my interest was piqued after seeing that this was going to be from the director of Arrival and Sicario. Is this another arresting detective story in a believable world where the high tech causes a lower quality life? Or is it just a visually stunning but cold and detached story that pushes a simple tale to an overly long running time?
In a future 30 years after the events of the original film, the Tyrell Corporation has collapsed along with the ecosystem of the planet. In this period a new mega-corporation run by Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) has taken up the mantle - reviving the world with both synthetic farming and a new, more subservient series of replicants. The older generation is hunted by the new, and Blade Runners like K (Ryan Gosling) are armed with stronger bodies and more advanced identification technology. After an encounter with one such fugitive (Dave Bautista) he uncovers a mystery that could unbalance current the state of a world where real humans and genetically engineered ones are firmly segregated.
K's life is a pretty sad state of affairs. He's treated with disdain by the public and his co-workers, and he's subject to harsh psychological analysis. The food is also terrible. He spends his bonus pay on upgrading a virtual girlfriend A.I. in his apartment when he's not suffering injuries at the hands of the suspects he is tasked with apprehending. Gosling's stony faced performance is suitably detached although his home relationship feels like an odd riff on the Spike Jonze film Her at times. This plot thread, while fitting in terms of characterisation feels like it could have been left out, and the holograms aren't quite in keeping with the grimy aesthetic. However elements that could have been cut is the main issue here, this is a long film and it feels drawn out and intentionally slow.
I have time for good intentionally measured pacing, and appreciate that this is edited with restraint. However by trying to follow up a Ridley Scott film it falls into the trap of becoming what his detractors usually cite as recurring flaws. It feels a lot longer than it needs to be considering the amount of actual plot, and it's a cold, distant experience. What's sorely missing is what made the original 1982 film so appealing, the characters like Roy, Pris and Leon who lent it both an engaging amount of screen presence and lot of sinister charisma. Here there are no such inclusions, it lacks the mixture of mean spirited violence and sympathetic childishness that made them so memorable. That heightened contrast between their nature and their behaviour.
Visually it repeats a lot of imagery in terms of both the motifs at work and the technology of the world itself. However it's very muted and often feels grey and hazy rather than dark and bleak. There's a lot more snow and fog, as well as more far more daylight. It's still all pretty striking to look at, and the sequences inside the glass and water filled Wallace building and out in a searing desert wasteland are standout moments. But it could probably do with feeling less sterile and more lived in considering that we learn things actually got worse in that big 30 year gap.
The story retreads a lot of the old themes including what being more human than human really means and whether the obviously cloned slave labour should be treated properly, rather than like defective machines. In terms of offering something new it's less dense than you might expect, with rival factions trying to control the future of their kind and a parental mystery story unfolding that isn't entirely predictable but still feels a little light weight. Direct callbacks to dialogue recordings and characters from 1982 don't come across entirely like fan service but don't always feel like they have a huge amount of relevance. It sometimes just highlights that this additional expansion to the story isn't all that necessary.
It often feels like something which could have been far leaner and more effective if they'd cut down on the slow tracking shots and given characters like Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) more personality rather than just a lot of violent acts to commit. Of course it's always fun to see Harrison Ford but he's introduced very late in and doesn't quite seem like the same hard, sleazy and frequently cruel Rick Deckard we met before. Maybe all the years made him into a real romantic instead just a hard boiled anti-hero. Fans can breathe a sigh of relief as this isn't the kind of inane action schlock that could have been produced. Its heart is in the right place, and this is no cash grab follow up. It may even bear repeat viewing to pick up on more of the atmosphere and the details. But as a first impression this doesn't quite meet my expectations as a sequel or as another Denis Villeneuve movie.
3/5
