MOVIE: Blade Runner 2049 

IT’S hard to believe the original Blade Runner film is 35-years-old. It’s popularity was due in large part to the incredible futuristic visuals. So what does the 2017 version have to offer?

The second instalment is set 30 years after the first, in the year 2049, where a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (played by Ryan Gosling), is on the hunt for more android replicants. 

When K unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos, his discovery leads him on a quest to track down now retired blade runner Rick Deckard, played by none other than the original replicant hunter, Harrison Ford.

The original director, Ridley Scott, is producing here and has passed the directing duties over to hot property Denis Villeneuve (‘Arrival’, ‘Sicario’). 

The original writer, Hampton Fancher, gets a script credit again but the real leg work seems to have been done by Michael Green (‘Logan’, ‘Alien :Covenant’). 

And, of course, Ford is back once more, but at no time gets in the way of the younger, fitter and cuter, Ryan Gosling.

The visuals are once again impressive, of course technology has moved on, and so the movie shows and sounds well on IMAX. The directing is top notch, as is the writing and acting. 

On the negative side, the two and three quarter hour run time is too long. Very few films can keep you riveted to your seat for that long, and this isn’t one of them. 

There’s also not a single moment of humour, nothing to lighten the mood, so the intensity never lets up. 

That’s fine for a ‘Dunkirk’, that comes in a full one hour shorter by comparison, but is something that’s sorely missing here. 

The other major issue is that those impressive futuristic visuals no longer have the same impact in 2017, and in fact they are not featured to the same extent as the original. 

This is a sequel that fans will love, and which we liked, but found a little soulless. We score it a decent, 3.5 out of 5 stars.  

Other Release: ‘The Glass Castle’ – 2.5 stars.

Paul O'Rourke