40. Blade Runner 2049

First of all, congratulations to me! Last year I saw 40 'new' films, and here we are, October, and I've hit that figure. This weeks film review comes from Costa Coffee, in Derby Train Station, where due to a uni open day, the bus got me here 30 minutes before my train is due. Where am I blogging from can become a new feature. Chances are it'll be either on train, near train, or in bed, but there we go. 

I was super excited to see Blade Runner 2049. The reviews I'd seen had been great, and obviously Ryan Gosling is great, Harrison Ford is great, it was all set to be great. The film starts with a handy synopsis of the original film, which was clearly helpful as I've obviously not seen it. The premise of the film is that K (Ryan Gosling) is an artificial human programmed to follow orders, working for LAPD. His mission is to retire the older, less obedient models of himself. 

The film follows K as he tries to retire the replicants, but also explores his emotion and feelings around being an artificial human. He lives with a hologram type female robot whom he is not able to love (because she's a hologram), which leads to quick an interesting/strange/bizarre subplot. He also struggles with memories, as an artificial human, he was never a child, but he still experiences flashbacks to his childhood. This is another theme throughout the film, looking at where these memories come from. 

As expected, there is also lots of action in the film, coming to a head at the end with a really intense and quite exciting action scene. Throughout the film, the action kept me hooked and interested in where the plot was going. 

Unfortunately for the film, it clocks in at a grand total 2hrs 45mins, and for me, as we know, I just don’t think this sort of the length is necessary for a film. Although I could keep my attention due to the exciting action parts, I think it’s hard to maintain the focus on the plot over such a long period of time. As mentioned before, there are many subplots, and these start to get confusing and tangled over time. There are parts where Jared Leto is the main character, but I’m still trying to work out who exactly he is, and with my understanding of the plot, I don’t think some of the parts are truly integral (not that Jared Leto was bad in the film, mind).

I also got about 2 hours into the film, wondering where Harrison Ford was. Again, he wasn’t bad in the film, but was he necessary? It felt like he was more of a cameo, and he could have been integrated more into the plot. That said, I haven’t seen the original so what do I know? 

Overall, the film is enjoyable, and if you are a SciFi/Fantasy fan you will really enjoy it. For me, not the biggest fan of things that aren’t realistic, it isn’t my film of the year, but I still think it is worth a watch. I wouldn’t say it lived up to the hype, but I’ll give it a solid 7.5/10 for the effort. Someone needs to give the movie industry the heads up that films only need to be 1.5-2hrs long.