Time for another round of quick confessions: I've never actually finished Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi epic that is Blade Runner. I will, of course, watch it again before seeing the sequel later this year, but the original is one of those I've always been told I need to watch and have started countless times, but never actually sat all the way through until the end. And so, with little knowledge of exactly what to expect from this movie other than a visually stunning experience (cinematographer Roger Deakins is once again responsible for what we see here) this second, more well-rounded look at director Denis Villeneuve's (Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival) thirty-year later sequel plays so well that general audiences should, at the very least, be intrigued while I imagine fans of the original will be going nuts over this one. If I'm to understand history correctly it would seem the original Blade Runner wasn't a runaway hit out of the gate critically or commercially, but more that it has over time become this cult classic that is now regarded as another masterwork by Ridley Scott. Still, despite my lack of any connection whatsoever to the previous film or even to Philip K. Dick's original source material, I'm a fan of all involved and have yet to dislike a film Villeneuve has made. Given the original was hailed for its production design and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1993 this sequel has a lot to live up to. Such honors mean the original film is considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and so I can't imagine Villeneuve took such a task lightly. With Deakins' eye, Villeneuve's direction, and a screenplay from original Blade Runner scribe Hampton Fancher and Logan co-writer Michael Green I'm hoping the film delivers in all the ways fans have been waiting for while also initiating a few newcomers along the way. The first line-up of Toronto International Film Festival selections should be announced some time next week and I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the opening night film given Villeneuve's last four films have all had runs at TIFF. Blade Runner 2049 stars Robin Wright, Barkhad Abdi, Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James, Mackenzie Davis, Jared Leto, Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, and opens on October 6th, 2017.
Synopsis: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
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