BLADE RUNNER 2049 REVIEW
Saw Blade Runner opening night. Just as I saw the original opening night. Proper (slow) pace. Long enough. I wish more movies were given this much screen time. Most of the time it’s a gorgeous feast for the eyes. But, the palette is diluted, it lacks the Gothic detail of the original’s Los Angeles. Too much was spent on effects and not enough on designing scenes, shots, and coaching the extras – it felt plastic. I really despise french cinema’s flat theatricality and I felt oppressed by it, despite the director’s partly successful attempt to invoke Kubrick. Some of the exterior sets feel like hack jobs (las vegas), and many feel more like a 70’s post-holocaust b-movies set (all the rest). Yes, we got some good sound. And … enough great acting. The Ford character was unnecessary and a distraction. Some very nice plot points. It needed a Shakespearean actor to play Leto’s role, there was too much nonsense chick-power – particularly from Hoek, whose talents are clearly there, but the end was just ridiculous. Most of all – and most frustrating was a total failure to fulfill the promise of the plot line – the last fifteen minutes are a total waste of time that emphasizes a minor plot point, but fails to bring the main plot to conclusion. Gonna put this up to another Ridley Scott failure despite Villeneuve’s directorial talents. It’s not the crash and burn of the Alien movies, and it’s worth the watch but I walked out feeling let down after all the promise that the main plot had set up. Scott needs to get out of the business.
Cut the ford plot line and play out the Leto plot line and you have a movie that would be legendary. But shoe horning in ford was a disaster.
Source date (UTC): 2017-10-06 11:56:00 UTC