Trigger Warning: the following post is my opinion and I talk about my opinion. Yours may differ.
Disappointing. Plain and simple. Earlier in the thread I said this:
That it failed to hype me worries me (only thing that hyped me was the title drop with the music).
I saw Blade Runner a few months ago and it was incredible. But this? I won't get my hopes up.
And this:
It's just that real life isn't so simple, it isn't as basic as A+B=C when people and not numbers are involved. Plus while a great sequel builds up on a movie, a terrible (or bad) sequel tends to taint the image of the first. I'm not saying a bad Blade Runner 2049 will make Blade Runner crap, but whenever I watch it again, I will be thinking "and thus came BR2049 and this and this happened... blergh".
Some people consider movies to be separate, I consider movies to be part of a whole. Saying one film is independent of the other is like me judging a book only by the chapters I liked, and forgetting about the rest.
It's sad to see how right I was, then again, I didn't say anything obvious. I won't discuss spoilers, and I feel some things are basically a spoiler no matter how abstract I put them, so I'll just say that:
-
You need to have watched Blade Runner to see this film. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Not only will watching the movie help you understand the universe much better, but also the movie relies on you having watched the original to have a much bigger impact.
- There are three short films (one is animated) set between
Blade Runner and
Blade Runner 2049. Watch those as well.
On the criticism side of things:
- I liked the score, but it felt like "more of the same".
- I enjoyed the visuals, but I liked
Blade Runner's so much more. What
Blade Runner 2049 had going for it was some pretty good looking set pieces, but overall I'll stick with
Blade Runner's any day of the week.
- Harrison Ford is awful. I don't know how else to say it. Maybe it's being unfair because both characters are very similar, but I would expect there to be more difference between Han Solo and Rick Deckard.
- Some things happen in the film that either weren't necessary (and really add up on the length of the film), or were left completely unanswered/forgotten.
- Some major plot holes where I was wondering why "something" wasn't happening.
- It wasn't anywhere near as engrossing as
Blade Runner,
to me.
And like I said many months ago:
- The sequel tainted the image of the first to me.
Blade Runner 2049 is an extension of
Blade Runner's story. And in my opinion, it made it worse.
Blade Runner was a movie than didn't need a direct sequel. But the Blade Runner universe is indeed very interesting to be left untouched. I would have preferred a film set in the universe, but with no connections with the original film.
I think the film wouldn't have been so disappointing if I hadn't seen the high scores it got from reviewers. I let them hype get to me a handful of days after the film was released, and I suffered...
EDIT:
Was posting these thoughts on another forum and I remembered reading critics said it matched the original and sometimes surpassed it. Must have confused it with
The Road Warrior.
Can't wait.
Overall I loved it and can't wait to see it again, though I am not sure about the ending. Great visuals, fantastic soundtrack, superb acting. I'm not good at reviewing things, so I'll just say it's a 9/10 for me.
