Chad’s Grade: B+
The original Blade Runner was a notorious financial flop upon its release in 1982. Directed by Ridley Scott, the cyberpunk film noir would grow to become a cult classic thanks to the cable and home video explosion in the 1980s. The film also went through a long overdue critical reassessment. It is now considered a landmark in the science fiction genre, particularly its stunning production design that brought a bleak, dystopian Los Angeles to life. A look that nearly every future set film copied and parodied endlessly, even to this day.
A sequel to Blade Runner, a film rich in atmosphere and potential world-building, seemed like a sure bet. Mainly since the original 1982 entry used very little of Phillip K. Dick’s source novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. In 1995 writer K.W. Jeter wrote Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, a sequel to both the feature film and Dick’s psychedelic opus, featuring the niece of Eldon Tyrell, Rachael’s human template, continuing her uncle’s legacy. There were also some video game spinoffs and other media tie-ins, but Ridley Scott seemed reluctant to revisit one of his signature classic movies.
Scott eventually moved forward when Warner Bros and Sony agreed to co-finance a sequel. He brought back original Blade Runner co-writer Hampton Fancher and teamed him with screenwriter Michael Green to craft a bigger and more complex tale that was not bound by Dick’s source novel. They even secured Deckard himself, Harrison Ford, who was on a roll revisiting his classic franchises following Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
In a surprising move, Scott handed off the reigns to Denis Villeneuve, a rising director with the hits Sicario and Arrival under his belt. This proved a wise choice, especially after watching Scott tarnish his Alien franchise with the underwhelming entries Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Not only is Villeneuve the natural successor to Scott in the visual department, but he’s also proving himself to be a superior storyteller. All these qualities are fully displayed in Blade Runner 2049, the excellent and “better than it should be” follow-up to the original cult classic.
As the title suggests, the legacy sequel is set 30 years later as we follow “K,” a specialized replicant model that serves as the LAPD’s “blade runner.” Agent “K” is part of the new “Nexus-9” series invented by wealthy businessman Niander Wallace and a replicant with modified behaviors that obey their superiors. “K” is designed for hunting down and “retiring” missing Nexus 7-8 models from the now-defunct Tyrell corporation. After “K” retires a Nexus 7 replicant Sapper Morton, he uncovers the buried remains of a woman who died in childbirth some 30 years earlier. A woman who is a replicant, known as Rachael from the original film.
The discovery of a replicant who birthed a child, proving that this synthetic race can self-perpetuate and evolve beyond their human masters, sets off alarm bells within the LAPD. Under strict orders, Agent “K” must uncover the identity and retire the now 30-year-old human/replicant hybrid, destroying all evidence of the child along the way. “K”’s investigation takes him from the cathedral-like boardrooms of Niander Wallace to the slum orphanages in San Diego, even visiting a “memory” designer for the Nexus 9 replicants. As “K” uncovers more clues, he discovers that many of his implanted memories may be real, causing him to question the nature of his replicant identity. And those questions lead him to meet the father of Rachael’s baby, Rick Deckard.
As you can see from the plot summary, there’s much more meat on the bone to this film’s narrative versus the original. The mystery of the baby “replicant” is genuinely compelling, with “K” s investigation taking many twists and turns. As we watch “K” follow the breadcrumbs, the film takes on a Wizard of Oz-style journey, visiting many of the nooks and crannies of this cyberpunk world, with Deckard serving as the “Oz” like endpoint. Agent “K” even has a holographic companion called Joi, who serves as his conscious and pushes the possibility that he could be a “real boy,” a la Pinocchio.
Director Villeneuve and his screenwriters cleverly scramble the legacy sequel tropes. This could’ve easily been a lazy retread of another brooding Blade Runner hunting down new replicants with more elaborate razzle-dazzle. But the filmmakers double down on the film noir atmosphere, where K uncovers a sinister conspiracy laced with questions of the God vs. Human vs. Replicant variety and the fact that the creators may be more deeply flawed than their creations. The movie also deftly avoids the “Deckard-Replicant” theory, leaving that loaded plot point ambiguous.
Guiding us through this new Blade Runner is Agent “K,” a replicant detective that’s a nice inversion of the original’s human (or is he?) variety. Ryan Gosling gives a quiet and nuanced performance as “K,” a change of pace from his flashier romantic comedy roles. Although that natural charisma sometimes breaks through, giving this dour film some much-needed levity. Gosling’s sad replicant is fascinating as we watch this Android trying to carve out a life from a handful of implanted memories. Even more tragic is that his most fulfilling human connection is with a mass-produced pleasure hologram, Joi. As played by the luminous Ana de Armas, Joi is a warm and welcoming presence, part narrator and conscious, helping guide “K” through his labyrinth investigation, especially when he questions the nature of his mysterious “memories.”
The rest of the cast does solid work. I enjoyed Robin Wright’s steely LAPD Lt. Joshi, Dave Bautista as grizzled replicant Sapper Morton and Mackenzie Davis as the mysterious prostitute Mariette. Jared Leto makes for an uber-creepy Niander Wallace, along with Sylvia Hoeks as his lioness-like replicant assistant Luv. And it’s nice to see Edward James Olmos returning as Gaff in a brief cameo, serving as a connective tissue to the original film.
But Blade Runner 2049 was heavily promoted with Harrison Ford, and he does indeed make his return as an older and crotchetier Rick Deckard. Ford’s original “Blade Runner” finally appears in the film’s last hour and doesn’t miss a beat, imbuing Deckard with a tragic and melancholy tone. As impressive as it was to see Ford seamlessly slip into his Han Solo persona in The Force Awakens, it’s even more impressive to witness his return to the complex Deckard. He’s still the cold detective but hardened by isolation and brief happiness with his replicant lover Rachael. Ford’s scenes with Gosling’s “K” are easily the film’s best, and his reunion with his now grown hybrid child (and I’m not saying who) comes close to the emotional wallop of the original “tears in rain” finale.
To director Villeneuve’s credit, Blade Runner 2049 matches the stunning visual grandeur of its predecessor. Gone are the towering pyramid-like skyscrapers but replaced with an urban sprawl protected by a massive wall from the rising sea levels. This human race is on the verge of extinction due to climate change as their replicant slaves prepare to inherit this desecrated world. The production design is stunningly enhanced with CGI technology yet keeping the 80’s analog tone. This is an alternative history where the iPhone was never invented, and even the Atari brand gets a dramatic close-up. But as impressive as the sci-fi trappings are, the filmmakers keep the art house/film noir tone, threading that consistent needle from the first 1982 entry.
Blade Runner 2049 is far from perfect, with some minor flaws. The film clocks in at nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes, as Villeneuve directs with a languid and deliberate pace. It’s nice to see the director luxuriate in the beautiful imagery provided by Roger Deakin’s Academy Award-winning cinematography, but Villeneuve could’ve easily trimmed about 20 minutes with a tighter cut. And while I applaud the filmmaker’s choice to make this a film-noir with a meatier story, the action quotient is quite low. Much like the original, fans expecting a high-octane action spectacle instead got a slow-burn mystery with low-stakes tension and thrills.
Sadly, despite mostly positive reviews, Blade Runner 2049 opened to middling box office receipts. It wasn’t an outright flop like the 1982 original, but Warner Bros and Sony expected a bigger return for their substantial budgeted investment. The producers failed to realize that the original Blade Runner was a cult film with just as many detractors as admirers. And modern audiences raised on a steady diet of pulse-pounding action fare were turned off by the slow burn and frankly dour tone.
Even with the sequel’s mixed success, the Blade Runner IP has been slowly expanding. Upon the film’s release, Titan Publishing produced an excellent comic book series written by 2049’s co-screenwriter Michael Green that follows the exploits of a female Blade Runner. I also enjoyed the 2021 animated Blade Runner: Black Lotus, now streaming on HBO MAX. The 13-episode series serves as a prequel to 2049, with the animators nailing the cyberpunk tone with a compelling storyline. But the waxy, video game-style animation of the human characters robs the story of its dramatic potential.
And Ridley Scott is producing a live-action TV series entitled Blade Runner 2099 for Amazon Prime. Set some 50 years after the events in 2049, the storyline is being kept under wraps for now. No premiere date has been announced, but with the deep pockets of Amazon and the involvement of director Scott and co-screenwriter Green, this could be a fascinating evolution of the franchise.
Chad, I pretty much agree with your review here. I definitely think the studio over-estimated the audience for this one. I remember when the original came out and everyone was captivated by the world-building within it. I thought this one was a bit too long, a bit too slow, and was hoping for more action and a higher level of suspense. Like you noted, the “noir” requirement was met and exceeded, but there wasn’t enough visual chaos or conflict. With Amazon writing the checks, the proposed series might be a winner.
Thanks for reading the review, Bruce. I was surprised at the high re-watchability aspect of 2049, even though the slow pace can be grating. It will be intriguing to see Blade Runner in TV form, especially from Amazon. I’ve enjoyed some of the more recent Amazon offerings, so fingers crossed.
I really enjoyed Blade Runner 2049, it built on the original, but also did its own thing as well. A very worth sequel indeed.
Thanks for checking out the review, Paul. I was nervous when they announced the sequel, as any follow-up to the original could’ve been problematic and easily gone off the rails. They pretty much nailed it and smartly expanded the universe, which I hope they explore in the upcoming Amazon TV series.
Me too, I’m looking forward to the new Dune series on Amazon as well. 🙂