Blade Runner 2049: It Was Worth It

This is one of those cases where it's hard for me to understand why some critics rail on good movies. As I've said many times before, I believe that sometimes critics are either meeting some "I hate this" quota, or are otherwise artificially validating their own existence through being negative. Did you know that a critic once called Beethoven's Ninth symphony "monstrous and tasteless" after its original performance?

Perhaps a lot of us were already preparing for a bad movie, as some recent Ridley Scott productions have been disappointing.

But that didn't happen for me with Blade Runner 2049. Rather, this movie pulled me right back into that world we saw 30 years ago, only with much better special effects and cinematography.

In 2049, newer models of replicants are made to be much more compliant and submissive to their human creators. Some older models still exist, and they are still hunted and destroyed. This time, Ryan Gosling plays the Blade Runner. As he's out on a mission, he learns about events that happened a couple of decades ago, which opens up a nice bag of questions. And ...

Well, I wish I could say more without spoiling the plot, but I can only do so with generalities. Just like in the original movie, this one explores humanity and sentience, and it also comes with plenty of atmosphere, action, and a healthy dose of depression.

I will agree that some the pacing is very slow in some places, but this was just as I suspected going in. Sure, they could have picked up the pace here and there, but at what cost? Sometimes we need a little extra time to process what we're seeing, and you can't have too much atmosphere if it's awesome.

Just like in the original, there were some confusing scenes, though after having watched the whole movie and having had time to process, it all seems to be coming together. I love a movie that makes you think even after the credits have stopped rolling.

Finally, I can't even begin to describe the joy I felt about the producers deciding to release the film in 2D Digital IMAX! I just knew that 3D glasses would ruin the whole effect for me, and the IMAX version was beyond amazing. This is indeed a movie to see now in the theater. Catch it now before it gets relegated to that small screen in the back room.