Topic: The Inevitable Blade Runner Thread *SPOILERS ABOUND*
I just saw it. Fuck, man. What a rush. Seeing good storytelling like that is like snorting a line of cocaine. Or several. Or whatever.
Blade Runner 2049 is a testament to Ridley Scott's ability to use light and composition to tell a story. The long, slow-burn of the pacing felt just like the original. Almost every frame could have been printed out and hung in a photography exhibit. Just beautiful work.
And while all that was super great, that's not what I loved about this movie. As far as visuals go, I really think that's the easy part. They've used the original as a template, and while this one was still brilliantly shot, it's imitative by nature.
To me, the performances were what won the day. I think anyone would have been able to just shoot visually "Blade Runner-esque" picture, throw in some Vangelis and call it a day. It was the subtle emotions of the characters, especially Ryan Gosling's K, that made this stand out as great.
(spoilers)
To be specific, I spent a large chunk of the movie going "please don't let him be Deckard's son. Please don't let him be Deckard's son". And he wasn't, and I was glad. What really got me was how K went from discovering he may have a family to having it all torn away from him. Instead that pain and sense of loss destroying him, he used it to give his life to get Deckard back to his daghter. And really, that's what the movie turned out to boil down to. In the end, we don't really know much about K. All we know is that he found his humanity and gave up everything to do the decent thing.
I was at the edge of my seat for pretty much the whole thing. My hat is off the Ridley. He's still got it.
Now he needs to put that much effort into making a decent Alien sequel.
