This film is a much more challenging feat to pull off though, so I don't begrudge him for taking on this cult behemoth. Villenueve's direction I feel with this film was actually unfortunately a step back from his work on Arrival, which I felt was far more concise and well directed. This is one of his greatest achievements and if he does not finally win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, I will be incredibly upset. His visuals here are nothing short of breathtaking, as even during the film's slowest moments, he always provides a delicious visual feast, with equal helpings of visual style and substance. Deakins is one of the best cinematic visionaries who has ever lived, as his cinematography has often been mesmerizing and mindblowing, and Blade Runner 2049 shows the Englishman at the top of his game. Though Gosling and Ford are heavily advertised as the stars of the film, its real hero is Roger Deakins. For all the acclaim this film has gotten, however, I believe that critics have been far too soft on the story's few, but major missteps. Though the narrative is the film's weakest aspect, I did like it more than I disliked it. Scenes of convenience abound, especially during K's arc with Deckard, and overall I felt that it floundered in the third act, but thankfully the script never dives into Syfy Original territory. The film also contains a lot of fat and filler, mostly with K's romantic interest and with a whole rebel subplot that serves no purpose and does not go anywhere. Unfortunately, I do think Villeneuve suffers a little bit from pretension here, as his direction beats audiences over the head with the themes of the screenplay almost to the point of condescension rather than incorporate them intertextually with Deakins' visuals. I will say that while I do not think the screenplay is as perfect as many other critics seem to think it is, it is overall a very well-written story that baits the audience into one line of thinking only to throw that aside and introduce alternate theories at every turn. The prospect of continuing Blade Runner in a sequel horrified a legion of superfans for the sci-fi cult classic, but luckily, the story of 2049 not only expands the intriguing world established in its predecessor, but it takes a different and equally valid take on some of the themes and questions from the original. Along the way he must interact with his police captain (Robin Wright), eccentric billionaire Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), and former Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). with tracking down a person of interest after discovering something that could change the very fabric of society. K (Ryan Gosling) is a blade runner who is tasked by the L.A.P.D. Thankfully, Blade Runner 2049, under the reigns of Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins, is an improvement on the first film in nearly every way, as it takes both themes from the original novel and some expansive developments from its predecessor to create a much more fulfilling and enriched cinematic experience. I felt that it was pretty, but beyond its style, there was much less substance than I felt there needed to be. Dick novel that the film was based on shortly before my first time watching it, and I felt that as an adaptation, the film failed to competently illustrate many of the themes Dick dived in-depth with, trading most of its philosophies and character development for a simplified if stylized cat and mouse screenplay. Not because I don't like sci-fi or because I don't like Ridley Scott, but because I read the Philip K. I'll be frank: I actually don't like Blade Runner. Known for its use of world-building and its screenplay that focused on asking questions on the nature of humanity while simultaneously using androids as the main antagonists, it was a risky philosophical experiment in the guise of a sci-fi cat and mouse game. The original Blade Runner grew to be one of the most influential sci-fi films of all time, as anime series such as Ghost in the Shell, the film series The Matrix, and other urban sci-fi noir stories would not exist without it.
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