It’s actually a 1950s hard boiled detective noir disguised as a future detective story. The objective to stop replicants in general - though the genre was always more about the people than the plot or the macguffin.
It’s superior to the sequel because it’s plot is more coherent, the performances are better, and it’s more thought provoking, but 2049 is still a remarkable movie, even if the parts are greater than it sum.
Glad some people don't drink the "newer is better" kool-aid.
It's superior to the "sequel" (i.e. a story not written by the original author and therefore has almost no bearing on the original) for just about every reason imaginable. The characters. The themes. The music. The visuals. The production of that movie was such a landmark that it still influences movies and video games in a BIG way,
to this day, 40 years later. It's still the high water mark in so many ways, and 2049 felt like a fan film with a budget, much like the new Star Wars movies. In terms of the characters, and the themes of the movie, compared to the first ... they are practically non-existent. It's another typical Hollywood plot driven big budget movie (this happens, and then this happens, which makes this happen!) that has absolutely no consequence at all. And then directly using the "time to die" music at the end that was used for Batty's scene in the original ...
absurd, and unearned. It reminded me of how "The Artist" used the Vertigo music for it's ending. Just no, that is an emotional moment earned in another movie, that has nothing to do with this. Total and utter garbage decision making.
2049 looked great, and it sounded good too. But again, it was competent people ripping off the vision of other people and that's it. The story and characters are complete throwaway.
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Back to the original topic. Always take the early reviews with a huge grain of salt. Multiple tweets saying this is "Hans Zimmer's best score" is suspicious. Whenever there is shared language from different people it sounds like they were given a quote sheet to include in their comments. I am listening to the soundtrack now, and it sounds like typical recent Zimmer. Heavy on drums, rhythm and ambience. Not much in terms of musicality. But there is more to go, we will see. I mean I think Hans does a good job of writing material that matches up with the screen well, but "best score" seems unlikely, especially from what I've heard so far.
, I love Dune 
