Blade Runner 2049 *** (2017)

Blade Runner 2049 takes its stylistic cues from the original 1982 film, yet at the same time offers a different vision that's just as striking and imaginative. Ryan Gosling stars as a blade runner, one who hunts down replicants, artificial beings who are not allowed to live on earth. In the original film, Harrison Ford starred as a blade runner who finds himself caught up in corporate intrigue that will shape the future. In the sequel, even deeper questions are posed on the fate of humanity and the inevitability of digital intelligence.

In 2049, the world is still reeling from an environmental catastrophe. Los Angeles resembles modern Tokyo and the lines between human and replicant have narrowed. Gosling plays "K." The investigation he pursues is more convoluted than Humphrey Bogart's in The Big Sleep. Yet each scene offers visually stunning and thought provoking moments. 

One things is clear as I watched Blade Runner 2049, humans will be forced to deal with real world consequence of artificial intelligence. That's the key idea the film attempts to address. The original mused on what it means to be human. The sequel asks even more complicated questions with the assumption that humans are destined to disappear: What will the legacy be when our forebears take the reins?

That's heady stuff. I think that's why audiences are not responding with rave reviews (many walked out at the screening I attended). Like its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 is a cold film. It's a specific vision from Jacques Villeneuve, who directed another Sci-Fi classic last year with Arrival. Hampon Fancher's (writer on the 1982 film) screenplay is dense, yet brilliantly brought to the screen.

Harrison Ford reprises his role and appears in the second half, yet somehow seems irrelevant to the overall arc of the film. Still, he brings some humanity to the dour proceedings. 

There's much to process with Blade Runner 2049: the nature of human/machine relationships, the consequences of climate change, and a post-human future. It dares to be difficult and pessimistic. Many will consider it pretentious and overlong.  I predict it will age well.