The first shot of Blade Runner 2049 mirrors one of the opening shots of the original. An eye, startling and beautiful on the big screen, appears and is soon juxtaposed with the world. The true testament to how excellent this sequel is can be found here because, just like the first, this juxtaposition is created with imagery, rather than a simple spelling out of the juxtaposition. That might seem like a simple thing, but the power in the audience’s mind of an image of a smokestack, representative of the industrial landscape, curving and molding itself to the eye of the observer, similarly captured in 2049 by the huts of the farmers on the gray land forming the circle of the eye, is undeniable. If there’s one thing that makes 2049 a true masterwork, it's the understanding of visual means of storytelling. Director Denis Villeneuve, cinematographer Roger Deakins, and executive producer Ridley Scott are all masters of the visual art but there’s an invigorating artistic richness to 2049 that is unparalleled by almost anything today. To draw the closest comparison I can think of, 2049 feels like Kubrick, and that’s not just because his “listen with your eyes” mantra fits easily over the burning passion of 2049’s philosophical soul. Villeneuve, somehow stepping his direction game up even higher, brings the perfection that Kubrick was known for as well. Most Kubrickian of all though is the film’s sense of effortlessness in the face of challenging material. There are many instances where the film is dealing with a huge subject matter relating to life and the human experience and that can be hard to effectively capture. 2049 smartly, allows imagery to stay on screen for a long time, similarly to the first one, keeping the ambiance ratcheted to 12. The score, composed by Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer, is one of the best I’ve ever heard, parallelling their living, breathing score of Dunkirk. It’s a layer of world building as cold and unforgiving as the breathtaking sets of the city. And all of that is present before you get to the story, which say it with me much like the first one, is a potboiler detective plot taking place in a cyberpunk landscape, that has the real purpose of taking the audience through a metaphorical journey of self-discovery relating to what it means to be human. If that sounds like I'm placing the plot elements in the back of the film it's because one I am in order to not constitute any spoilers (though those would provide a richer analysis of the material) and two, the only moments the movie does stumble at are when the overall machinery of the plot starts to take over. 2049 weaves a superficially compelling tale but, as highlighted in the opening paragraph, it is the imagery that crafts the identity of this film. If imagery defines a film though, sometimes you start to lose aspects of individual character, and what’s interesting is that Blade Runner 2049 actually allows this to be integrated into the thematic material of the film. K (Ryan Gosling) is a replicant blade runner, a man killing his own kind, who is offered the chance to become human. Throughout the film, K isn’t really connectable to, and it is mainly because he is placed at an arm’s length from the audience. He’s a man confused by his own identity and it often shows to the audience. You’re unable to connect to him, which does end up becoming a flaw, but it is also very interesting to see how he crafts his identity. So much of the film is based on scenes and events that are intentionally vapid, showing the emptiness of the artificiality of the society that the characters occupy and that often keeps the audience away from truly identifying with the film, but also allows them to truly engage with the emotions of the world. Blade Runner 2049 is a stunning achievement of frustrating, yet spectacular science fiction filmmaking. It drowns you in its imagery, thrills you with its precision and moves you with its ability to capture ideas of what it means to be human. Villeneuve, Deakins, Scott, Gosling, Ford, and almost any of the players here have crafted a science fiction film worthy of the first Blade Runner (The Final Cut), a movie that may be out of your grasp but only because you’re gawking at the visuals.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |