BLADE RUNNER 2049

FOUR AND A HALF STARS While hunting down rogue cyborgs, K is driven to unlock past secrets of his own.

Starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford

SCIENCE FICTION ACTION #BLADERUNNER2049

Extraordinary. There’s not much else to say about this sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece by Denis Villenueve, the guy behind SICARIO and ARRIVAL. Some thirty years on from when Deckard (Harrison Ford), a cop who hunted runaway cyborgs first realised he was a cyborg himself, cops like K (Ryan Gosling) are still hunting down man-machines. The world is still a dystopian nightmare, humanity remains a fragile force. The difference is, new models like K don’t go rogue, leaving him free to do his job: clean up problem units that are still in hiding.

To say anything more would be to give away the glorious nuances and seismic plot turns that Villenueve has invested into this rewarding sequel. He's working from a script by Hampton Fancher who wrote the original film. It’s a visceral experience that recalls the finest science fiction movies in terms of tone (epic), pacing (slow), duration (long) and production (eye-watering). As he did with ARRIVAL, Villenueve achieves what any good director of the genre (and there are precious few) sets out to do: distill the essence of what it means to be human. His film speaks to the mind, the heart and soul.

Although it doesn’t share the breath-taking originality of the its predecessor (nor should it, this is set within a known world), everything about BLADE RUNNER 2049 is on an epic scale – from its aspirations and achievements to the phenomenal set design, Roger Deakin’s arresting cinematography and a punishing score by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch. Even the trailer which pays tribute to Scott’s original sets a new standard: check out this frame-by-frame comparison for a taste of what’s to come.

An outrageous blend of art house and block buster, BLADE RUNNER 2049 sits apart from most science fiction that has come before; and establishes itself as the hottest film of the year. In a word: extraordinary.