Within this wealth of technological innovation K’s holographic girlfriend Joi (Ana de Armas) presents the greatest extension of Blade Runners’ central question – what is it to be human? With a strong resemblance to Spike Jonze’s superb Her, Joi ambiguously straddles a life between human-esq sentience and merely servicing the subconscious desires of K. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri) crafts virtual reality memories to implant in Replicants, chillingly calling into question the validity of our own history and memory. In another instance of pure inspiration, the imprisoned Dr. In one of the film’s standout set-pieces a fistfight unfurls within one of Las Vegas’ derelict bars with distorted holograms of Liberace, Elvis and Marylin Monroe ghosting through the backdrop. Villeneuve’s achieves this disorienting spectacle through an obsessive attention to detail and a wealth of inspired designs anchored in 2017’s technological innovations. Veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins imbues these varied locations with their own vivid, breath-taking essences that glow, shimmer and sprawl with supreme authenticity.Ģ049’s world building is a dizzying experience capable of lulling us into questioning our own understanding of what is real and what is not. K’s mission takes him away from the claustrophobic alleys and into the remains of California sterile plains, the industrial dumping grounds of San Diego, an abandoned Las Vegas coated in an eradiated orange haze and Wallace Corporation’s Feng Shui blend of wood, water and shadows. If Blade Runner’s ‘cyber punk’ vision was anchored around the idea of cramped and dehumanising urbanisation, then 2049 is centred around alienation and isolation. Scott combined the shadowy underworld of Film Noir, the abrasive fashion of Punk and a parallel America overrun by Asian influence with hectic noddle bars and garish neon glows. The original Blade Runner’s most venerated element was its paradoxically retro-futuristic urban landscape. Joshi (Robin Wright) orders him to find and destroy the mystery child, megalomaniac Replicant manufacture Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) envisions the miracle child as the key to his ambitious plans. On Morton’s farm, K makes a discovery capable of destroying the delicate balance of power between human and Replicant the skeletal remains of a Replicant found to be capable of the seemingly impossible childbirth. The Replicant, Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), refuses to go quietly, but before K decommissions him Morton goads his killer with a phrase of enigmatic significance “You’ve never seen a miracle”. 2049 opens to K (Ryan Gosling), a replicant ‘blade runner’, encountering an old model Replicant in the charred outskirts of LA. In the intervening 35 years since Blade Runner little has changed in its dystopian Los Angeles a deluge of rain pounds the Brutalist fragments, Replicants remain ubiquitous and ‘blade runners’ still scour the landscape hunting AWOL androids. Yet instead of constructing a hollow Replicant of its 35 year old predecessor, director Denis Villeneuve has crafted a sequel of staggering visual supremacy and boundless innovation worthy of Ridley Scott’s original vision. In a world of safe uninspired reboots, sequels and spin-offs ready to milk the last drops of worth from their cultural cash cows, Blade Runner 2049, in true noir fashion, felt destined for failure. Familiar blockbuster franchises beamed across the gigantic screen in new guises – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League – barely capable of papering over the tired tropes, numbing action and stale characters. Settling down to view Blade Runner 2049 at the Imax in Manchester, the preceding trailers appeared as a timely reminder of cinematic disappointment.
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