Blade Runner 2049- early review (no spoilers)

[YmoBeThere]

Holy crap! It's got an hour and twenty minutes of previews?!

That or the reviewer had Atlanta* traffic to contend with and included that time.

*Or any other major city with bad traffic.

[BD80]

Holy crap! It's got an hour and twenty minutes of previews?!

The previews are the best part!

Of course, assuming you are attending an action/adventure flick. That way, you'll see the best part of every movie previewed, and won't ever need to see the full features previewed, it's not like you'll miss the plot.

[Doria]

Saw it last night and enjoyed it. Actually, it was faster paced than I expected. Great cinematography and acting. I thought they could/should have trimmed about 15 mins off; did we really need all the flashbacks to things that happened less than three hours before? And they could have tightened up the middle section, as well. But this feels like nitpicking. Obviously, it is not as good as the original, but for what it is and wanted to be, I thought it was a solidly successful film.

One of the first “event” movies I can remember seeing on opening weekend that had a full theater but zero applause after it ended. Perhaps this was due to seeing it in Culver City as opposed to Hollywood proper.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

Saw it on the IMAX tonight and thought it was stunning. Everything I would want in a Blade Runner sequel except maybe the soundtrack was just a little grating at times (part of this is probably because the volume in this IMAX is always turned to 11).

The original Blade Runner was pretty slow, but I thought this was fast paced by comparison and I didn't really feel the run time of nearly 3 hours...was actually a little surprised at how quickly it seemed to fly by. The IMAX was reasonably well filled for a Sunday night showing. Was hard for me to gauge the overall reaction afterwards.

[CameronBornAndBred]

You missed the part where this thread says no spoilers.

[CameronBornAndBred]

With BR2049 only pulling in 31M, and two action movies on tap (The Foreigner and Snowman), one with Jackie Chan, will this movie have the legs to get past the 100M mark?

Plus, Tyler Perry, and one of his gawd awful movies, will be stealing candy from the box office, too.

[Mabdul Doobakus]

You missed the part where this thread says no spoilers.

My bad. Can't seem to edit it unless I'm missing something.

[fidel]

Why ‘Blade Runner’...

http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/why-i...de-runner.html

[luburch]

Caught a 7pm showing last night. About 30 people in the theater and some waiting to come in for the next showing when it was over.

I really enjoyed it. Thought it could have been about twenty minutes shorter, but that was my only real complaint. Are we still doing the no spoilers thing?

[JasonEvans]

Are we still doing the no spoilers thing?

Naah, been out long enough so that spoilers are allowed, I think.

[weezie]

Just saw it today. Loved it. Not a slow moment in it, maybe a bit too much of Robin Wright drinking sake but otherwise jam-packed. Laughed out loud at using Robin Wright's face for computer recognition then banging her head into the desk.

So, if the spoiler alert is off, per the upper post, how did Wallace amass his power/wealth? My take is, he's a replicant.

We know eyeballs are tagged but did they know bones were too before the power wipeout? How were the memories implanted into Joe/K?

Is there any talk of another sequel?

Really disappointed the film isn't doing better box office.

[Tommac]

Just saw it today. Loved it. Not a slow moment in it, maybe a bit too much of Robin Wright drinking sake but otherwise jam-packed. Laughed out loud at using Robin Wright's face for computer recognition then banging her head into the desk.

So, if the spoiler alert is off, per the upper post, how did Wallace amass his power/wealth? My take is, he's a replicant.

We know eyeballs are tagged but did they know bones were too before the power wipeout? How were the memories implanted into Joe/K?

Is there any talk of another sequel?

Really disappointed the film isn't doing better box office.

That was my biggest question at the end, how and why did Joe get the memory of the wooden horse?

[JasonEvans]

Replicants are given memories because it allows them to function better. Their AI works better when it has experiences to build upon. A replicant knows how to order a meal or drive a car because it believe it has already experienced that through implanted memories. That is how they are made.The memories also allow humans to better control the replicants. Replicants without implanted memories are more likely to malfunction and disobey human commands.

This was all explained to some extent in the first film. It is just a given in the second film that replicants are given memories. Dr. Steline (Deckard and Rachel's daughter) is an expert at designing the memories that will be implanted and she uses her own memories whenever she can because "real memories are the best ones."

[luburch]

Where does everyone stand on Deckard being a replicant? I think he is. I know Ridley Scott and Ford have differing opinions on the matter.

I thought it was odd for K/Joe to figure out he was the child so early on in the film, so I supposed I should have seen that twist coming, but I didn't. The memory about the horse had me fooled.

[JasonEvans]

Where does everyone stand on Deckard being a replicant? I think he is. I know Ridley Scott and Ford have differing opinions on the matter.

I feel like the fact that he aged a good bit from the lat movie means he is not a replicant. I mean, were they built with the ability for their skin to wrinkle and hair to go grey? Plus, if Deckard is a replicant, why wasn't he given any of the enhanced strength and other abilities of the other replicants? I mean, he had no chance in a hand-to-hand fight in the first film and he was clearly a lot weaker than K in this film.

If he was a replicant then that makes Dr. Steline a replicant too, right? She'd be the offspring of two replicants. Frankly, at that point there would be no real difference in a replicant and a human, would there?

-Jason "I know Ridley wants Deckard to be a replicant, but I'm not entirely sure I trust his storytelling after some of his mistakes with Alien" Evans

[weezie]

That was my biggest question at the end, how and why did Joe get the memory of the wooden horse?

I think they are actually twins. What was the syndrome that the female baby was supposedly afflicted by that caused her to be confined in the "bubble"?
Why couldn't there have been two babies, replicant both or one human, one replicant? Stelline validates K/Joe's memory, did she implant it into him?
Emergency Csection...

One last thing, the music on K's phone, "Peter" from "Peter and the Wolf" Almost every time, it caught me off guard. What's the symbolism there?

[alteran]

Finally saw it. Wow.

Following up an absolute classic is an impossible feat, I think Villenueve pulled it off. Stunning visuals. Apropos visuals.

Soundtrack was bang on. I couldn't tell if those were actual throwback Moog synthesizers, but they sure as heck sounded like it. Kept the feel of the original while updating the sound quality. Again, well done.

By modern standards, BR49 had a slow, almost languid pace. Probably pretty trying for modest audiences trained to expect a string of action sequences with no more than 4 minute gaps. Again, I thought the pace was perfect.

Glad I saw this one in the theater. Wish it had done better box office.

[alteran]

That was my biggest question at the end, how and why did Joe get the memory of the wooden horse?

I assumed it was part of the misdirection/cover-- the deception was carried so far that even K's memories imply he's a "conceived replicant."

Of course, for the memories to be implanted, they'd have to be taken in the first place, so Stelline and K are not in sync age-wise.

Despite aging, I have to assume Deckard is a replicant, because... isn't the whole underpinning of the story that replicants are presumed sterile and have to be manufactured-- but now one HAS reproduced? That's the miracle, that's what changes the whole game, and that's why Stelline is both dangerous AND has to be hidden.

If she's the product of a human/replicant pairing, that plot point is lost. (And, as Jason pointed out, if humans + replicants can have children, replicants are LITERALLY humans, which is an interesting idea, but one which moots a lot of the plot.)

I can't think of any theory that completely holds water, but Deckard-is-a-replicant is the theory that springs the fewest leaks. I honestly don't think it's even close.