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Blade Runner 2049 Review Thread

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Deleted member 102362

Unconfirmed Member
Yep, the only part I miss is the "I want more life fucker". If I remember correctly, Batty doesn't say anything to Sebastian afterwards either which is a bit more terrifying. Aside from that, the Final Cut is amazing.

Workprint/Final Cut = father; Roy talking to Sebastian afterwards
all other cuts = fucker; Roy being silent to Sebastian
 
I see a lot of movies and most of them slip through my brain like water through a sieve. But I can’t stop thinking about this. Every inch of every frame was captivating. There was a moment towards the end where I thought about how long it was, but not out of boredom or annoyance, just out of sheer incredulity that a movie like this got made in 2017 with a massive budget and a wide release.
 

hrab

Member
Just returned from the cinema. A good movie on it's own, but nowhere near close to the original. Visually, although pretty, captures the spirit of the first one only in few scenes. The same goes for music, there is maybe 10 minutes of music that sounds like Blade Runner, all the rest it's just uninspired or sucks bad (
like the first one from the credtis
. It just doesn't give you any feels, like Vangelis work did. If they would call it by a different name, and replaced all the references with some original character it probably would be better. To put some analogy (for football fans at least), after seeing some reviews one might get an impression, that after Maradona we've finally got Messi, when in fact it's just Riquelme. Not the same level.
 

robotrock

Banned
I see a lot of movies and most of them slip through my brain like water through a sieve. But I can’t stop thinking about this. Every inch of every frame was captivating. There was a moment towards the end where I thought about how long it was, but not out of boredom or annoyance, just out of sheer incredulity that a movie like this got made in 2017 with a massive budget and a wide release.

I was really surprised when the credits rolled. Runtime felt like an hour and a half but I guess it was way longer
 

Neece

Member
I was really surprised when the credits rolled. Runtime felt like an hour and a half but I guess it was way longer

Damn really? It felt long to me. Easily more than 2 hours. I can’t imagine watching it and feeling like it was only 90 minutes.
 

robotrock

Banned
Damn really? It felt long to me. Easily more than 2 hours. I can’t imagine watching it and feeling like it was only 90 minutes.

I definitely get how it feels slow but I think I was just so interested in seeing how the mystery unfolded and was also so glued to the gorgeous visuals that it ended up feeling like no time for me.
 

Fjordson

Member
Yep, the only part I miss is the "I want more life fucker". If I remember correctly, Batty doesn't say anything to Sebastian afterwards either which is a bit more terrifying. Aside from that, the Final Cut is amazing.
He says "father" in the final cut, which I always preferred. "Fucker" is always a little jarring to me in that scene.
 

robotrock

Banned
Yeah they process their orders through fandango. I missed yesterdays showtime, i'm going to try to catch it matinee right now





Did anyone watch this in 3D/RealD? Should I just watch regular edition or look for an IMAX theater?

deakins said he likes the standard 2D version more than IMAX 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Gonna see this in 4 hours at a matinee. Probably the first time I've been hyped like a child for a movie since TFA.
 

robotrock

Banned
Always listen to the person who actually composed the shots.

Saw Atmos last night, going to XD 11.1 tonight. No IMAX.

Especially for this one.

Still I am kind of curious enough about the IMAX version. So strange that they actually put in effort and formatted it differently for that screen. Went standard 2D for my first watch though and glad I did it.
 

Schlep

Member
Saw it last night at 10:45 and it was pretty great. The theater which is always busy had maybe 30 seats filled out of 150. Doesn't bode well.
 
Movie was the most amazing film that I've seen in my life. I had four major complaints, but only one was directly related to the movie itself, the rest were marketing and/or Ridley Scott based.
 

MrS

Banned
Watched it again earlier today in a pretty much empty cinema in England. I enjoyed it a lot more than on Thursday and I think it's perfectly paced. The time flies by and I left the cinema more satisfied than I did after my first viewing. It's an extremely well-crafted film in every regard. Gosling and Hoeks put in the best performances and the film is a triumph. Not the best film I've seen this year though: mother! is still the best cinema experience I've had a long, long time.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I was really surprised when the credits rolled. Runtime felt like an hour and a half but I guess it was way longer

To me it felt longer than the original TV cut of Das Boot.

When I was leaving the theater someone said "What day is it?".
 

John_B

Member
I went for a showing in IMAX 2D. The film is a sexual act performed on your eyeballs. I liked the relatively slower pace but still it felt a bit weird.
 

SmartBase

Member
I just got back and despite the shitty cinema and two (!) distracting sets of subtitles for the plebs I really enjoyed the film. I still rate the first one higher because of its wonderful soundtrack.

If anything, it sounds like a small plot point, being part of the general premise of the movie. Rather than a major plot reveal

Yeah it really wasn't a big deal.
 

Shoeless

Member
Also just caught it today. Enjoyed it. A very good hard SF film, and I'll definitely be adding the Blu Ray to my collection when it goes retail. Felt Blade Runner-ish , but also felt like its own thing. This could have gone wrong in so many ways, so it's impressive that it didn't in the way that Prometheus, which I liked, did go off the rails.
 
Saw it today, and absolutely loved it. I'll be writing a full review later.

I think Denis is the kind of film maker who doesn't give a shit. He just makes the movies he wants to make, he doesn't go to studios and pitch a movie from a business perspective unlike Nolan does. I get the feeling Nolan wants to please his investors, and simultaneously wants to get artistic praise. After a few successful projects Nolan felt dat thirst for artistic recognition, so he made Dunkirk, ticking all the boxes,in his mind. The crazy thing is that 2049 will potentially have much larger artistic ramifications.

Nolan's movies in general have made a ridiculous amount. I'm not sure he made Dunkirk to please his investors or for Oscar potential. I mean WB did schedule it for the summer, which isn't exactly a great Oscar date anyway.
 

Giolon

Member
Saw it. Enjoyed well enough. It didn’t do much for me though. I saw the original on DVD back in college (director’s cut apparently) and I enjoyed that back then but it’s not a favorite.

The movie is better than it had any right to be after all this time, and they stayed mostly thematically consistent visually and tonally to the original. It just left me feeling almost nothing.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Watched the original 2 days ago. Wasn't as good as I heard it was. I know some of this is lost in the fact that I'm watching it 35 years too late.
 

Krev

Unconfirmed Member
Watched the original 2 days ago. Wasn't as good as I heard it was. I know some of this is lost in the fact that I'm watching it 35 years too late.
The best thing about the original is the art direction and that's been pilfered by most sci-fi media released in the past few decades.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
The best thing about the original is the art direction and that's been pilfered by most sci-fi media released in the past few decades.

I did notice this ALOT! I was born in 1983, but I did notice a decent amount of things with the art direction that I've seen used over the years.

I don't recall a lot of movies from the 70s doing most of those things from memory. From the neon lights, to the crazy light sources that created these deep light rays and dark shadows. It did love the look of the movie.

The story was good too, but the pacing seemed weird to me. I saw the "final cut" version. Is that why?
 
I feel it gets better with rewatches.

Definitely gets better every time I see it. I've seen Blade Runner probably around 20 times during the past 20 years and it's been always among my favorites (Excluding the time I first saw it when I was 12 and didn't like it) but I'd say now seeing it twice during the past couple of weeks on 4k blu-ray I think I like it even more than before if possible. The visual mastery and the art direction stand out it even more on 4k blu-ray. Blade Runner is high up there among my top 10 favorite films of all time.
 
The story was good too, but the pacing seemed weird to me. I saw the "final cut" version. Is that why?

The Final Cut is the only version you should see, it has some little improvements on the audio and visuals and storywise it's the same more complex version as the Directors Cut. One thing I love about the film is that you can analyze and interpret it over and over again and the questions like is Deckard himself a replicant or human are endlessly fascinating.

The Final Cut is the version Ridley Scott himself prefers as well.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
The Final Cut is the only version you should see, it has some little improvements on the audio and visuals and storywise it's the same more complex version as the Directors Cut. One thing I love about the film is that you can analyze and interpret it over and over again and the questions like is Deckard himself a replicant or human are endlessly fascinating.

The Final Cut is the version Ridley Scott himself prefers as well.

I don't understand.....how could Deckard be a replicant? Nothing in the movie even hinted that, that was a real possiblity.
 
I don't understand.....how could Deckard be a replicant? Nothing in the movie even hinted that, that was a real possiblity.
In the Final Cut and main plot, we learn about memory implants. Deckard has a dream/memory about a unicorn. Gaff leaves a unicorn origami behind, even though Deckard tells no one. Thus implying that was an implanted memory. Plus some other comments.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
In the Final Cut and main plot, we learn about memory implants. Deckard has a dream/memory about a unicorn. Gaff leaves a unicorn origami behind, even though Deckard tells no one. Thus implying that was an implanted memory. Plus some other comments.

WHOA! I remember saying to myself at the end...."why did they focus on that silly unicorn paper thing". I thought it was some weird thing going on in the 80s in pop culture and I just missed the understanding.

Hmmm......
 

Z3M0G

Member
WHOA! I remember saying to myself at the end...."why did they focus on that silly unicorn paper thing". I thought it was some weird thing going on in the 80s in pop culture and I just missed the understanding.

Hmmm......

Watched the Director's Cut 30+ times since I was in middle school... never made the implant memory > dream > origami connection...

My GF watches it once and says it as soon as the credits start.

I guess you stop analyzing things eventually.
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
WHOA! I remember saying to myself at the end...."why did they focus on that silly unicorn paper thing". I thought it was some weird thing going on in the 80s in pop culture and I just missed the understanding.

Hmmm......

Even without the dream sequence, the paper unicorn implies Gaff was there, knows Rachel is alive, knows Deckard is harboring her, but is letting them get away.

But yeah, the implication from that added dream adds another wrinkle into that.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
In the Final Cut and main plot, we learn about memory implants. Deckard has a dream/memory about a unicorn. Gaff leaves a unicorn origami behind, even though Deckard tells no one. Thus implying that was an implanted memory. Plus some other comments.

It could also be more vague.

Like both Deckard and Gaff understand the relationship is futile, that this kind of love is a Unicorn: simply not able to exist.

I choose to see it more as both men thinking the same thought, a mutual understanding presented artistically instead of literally. I don't think anyone was reading anyone's mind.

And it works both ways, the ambiguity of these things is handled perfectly. Hell, even Scott who is a brute with his opinion onf Deckard being a replicant allowed room for interpretation. The fact that we managed to get Villeneuve who applied the same intelligence to the ambiguity is pretty remarkable.
 
I think Denis is the kind of film maker who doesn't give a shit. He just makes the movies he wants to make, he doesn't go to studios and pitch a movie from a business perspective unlike Nolan does. I get the feeling Nolan wants to please his investors, and simultaneously wants to get artistic praise. After a few successful projects Nolan felt dat thirst for artistic recognition, so he made Dunkirk, ticking all the boxes,in his mind. The crazy thing is that 2049 will potentially have much larger artistic ramifications.
Listen to Plasma guise, he is bffs with both Nolan and Denis and knows exactly what these guys are thinking and who they're trying to please.
 
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