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First Blade Runner 2049 impressions

Enemy > Arrival > Incendies > Polytechnique > Prisoners > Sicario

All good films, btw. Just Sicario was a bit disappointing. And I love his more out there stuff. Great variety.
Sicario is probably my favorite, but I appreciate Arrival more, if that makes sense. We don't often get sci-fi movies like that anymore

Saw Enemy for the first time yesterday. That was...something
 
If Arrival - an unorthodox first contact sci-fi story that revolves around linguistics - can make over $200 million, I think a new Blade Runner will at least make back its budget

Stranger things have certainly happened. How much money does a film with this budget need to make before it can be properly considered successful? Marketing budgets are pretty hefty usually right? I think they are actually pushing this pretty hard. I see plenty of TV spots etc in Australia.

This may be a slow-burn noir thriller drama, but that'll appeal to way more people than Arrival IMO

You would think so, but maybe the relatively grounded nature of Arrival actually bought a more diverse audience in? Skewing slightly older than usual? Then again, this is a sequel to an old classic so maybe the appeal will be comparable (while also appealing to a younger audience). I saw Arrival with my parents, and I'll be seeing Blade Runner with them as well!
 

Surfinn

Member
Was never a huge blade runner fan (only saw it once), but the trailer and these impressions have me hyped. Will watch the original again, in prep.

Time to MoviePass
 
This doesn't surprise me. The original Blade Runner isn't especially great or interesting

tenor.gif
 

TACPhilly

Banned
Sounds fucking great. Absolutely cannot wait.



This is dumb. Star Wars isn't going for the same thing as Blade Runner, not even remotely. Nor do I even understand what the "live-action Lego movie" dig is supposed to tell me... Because The Lego Movie is a fucking masterpiece.
so butthurt
 

brau

Member
God, I can't wait for this. This is the kind of movie that I gotta see in theaters.

Any word if the faux-IMAX stuff is in 3D? 3D conversions usually look like butt, so I wanna avoid it as much as I can.

This.

Work just reserved tickets for the 3D showing, but i am still interested to know if the 3D is subpar.
 

duckroll

Member
The boxoffice prediction game is really tough with scifi films because the scifi nature of a film is hardly the reason most people would watch the film, so it's really about what other factors there are which could draw them in or repel them.

Arrival is less than two hours long, is presented as a family relationship drama mixed with first contact with aliens. I think it's fairly relatable and not something that turns people off if they're curious about it or the word of mouth is good.

Blade Runner is almost 3 hours long, is almost certainly going to be more of a thriller of sorts which attracts more of a male skewed demographic but also more cerebral and atmospheric which might be more challenging than some of those audiences would like. It's also 3 hours long. I would say the closest comparison here is Nolan's Interstellar, except without having "From the director of the Batman trilogy" pasted on it.

Another factor to consider: How much international pull does this need to be successful? Arrival was basically 50/50 with 100 million domestic and 100 million foreign. For a good level of success a blockbuster that costs >150 million is going to need much more foreign success to carry it unless we're expecting a HUGE domestic take, which looks unlikely.
 
The boxoffice prediction game is really tough with scifi films because the scifi nature of a film is hardly the reason most people would watch the film, so it's really about what other factors there are which could draw them in or repel them.

Arrival is less than an hour long, is presented as a family relationship drama mixed with first contact with aliens. I think it's fairly relatable and not something that turns people off if they're curious about it or the word of mouth is good.

Blade Runner is almost 3 hours long, is almost certainly going to be more of a thriller of sorts which attracts more of a male skewed demographic but also more cerebral and atmospheric which might be more challenging than some of those audiences would like. It's also 3 hours long. I would say the closest comparison here is Nolan's Interstellar, except without having "From the director of the Batman trilogy" pasted on it.

Another factor to consider: How much international pull does this need to be successful? Arrival was basically 50/50 with 100 million domestic and 100 million foreign. For a good level of success a blockbuster that costs >150 million is going to need much more foreign success to carry it unless we're expecting a HUGE domestic take, which looks unlikely.
Feels like competition and word of mouth will play a big part
 

Alienfan

Member
That $185 million budget on Wikipedia can't be right, I know Warner Bros have backed some crazy risky shit before, but that number seems unusually high
 

UrbanRats

Member
Incendies > Sicario > Enemy > Prisoners > Arrival

He's a pretty exciting director. I don't like him as much as Nolan but he's the closest analogous director to him right now and certainly handles some things better such as exposition

Enemy > Sicario > Polytechnique > Prisoners > Arrival > Incendies.

I liked them all to a degree, though.
 

duckroll

Member
That $185 million budget on Wikipedia can't be right, I know Warner Bros have backed some crazy risky shit before, but that number seems unusually high

The number comes from The Hollywood Reporter, and Alcon/WB/Sony hasn't disputed it, so it's hard to say. It appears the press are all estimating around 150-185 million for the budget, so if it is significantly under the ballpark, there's usually a correction put out by the studios.
 

TBiddy

Member
I think I should get around to re-watching Blade Runner again. It's feels like decades, since I last watched it.
 

Fjordson

Member
Wow. Sounds like people are loving it.

Trying not to get too hyped, but I won't be shocked if this is great. Villeneuve and Deakins are damn good at what they do and I actually like Ryan Gosling in the right role (cynical, mostly emotionless future cop being one of those roles).
 
Really wasnt excited was probably gonna skip it but the reviews are really positive so I will be going.

I saw GitS 2017 because I had to know, and after seeing GitS turned into a typical Protagonist is special and has to fight evil company I saw the 2049 trailers and it looked bland wtih a lot of action added.

The first Blade runner had what a chase, two 30 secs of Deckard getting his ass kicked before shooting someone, and a Fight at the end.
The Trailer looked like it was showing of multiple fights some desert gang fight against 4 dudes and I was worried they were gonna action movie it up.
But the reviews seem to say it still has that noir feel so I hope its good/
 

duckroll

Member
I'd been meaning to get around to watching this, but hadn't gotten to it yet. Damn my racist, subtitle-fearing eyeballs. ��

Well the sooner you get that sorted out, the sooner you can distance yourself from this very bad group you don't want to be associated with! :D

The trailers made it look like a dumb action film, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

Has Villeneuve ever directed a dumb action film tho? I guess there's always a first time.
 
The boxoffice prediction game is really tough with scifi films because the scifi nature of a film is hardly the reason most people would watch the film, so it's really about what other factors there are which could draw them in or repel them.

Arrival is less than an hour long, is presented as a family relationship drama mixed with first contact with aliens. I think it's fairly relatable and not something that turns people off if they're curious about it or the word of mouth is good.

Blade Runner is almost 3 hours long, is almost certainly going to be more of a thriller of sorts which attracts more of a male skewed demographic but also more cerebral and atmospheric which might be more challenging than some of those audiences would like. It's also 3 hours long. I would say the closest comparison here is Nolan's Interstellar, except without having "From the director of the Batman trilogy" pasted on it.

Another factor to consider: How much international pull does this need to be successful? Arrival was basically 50/50 with 100 million domestic and 100 million foreign. For a good level of success a blockbuster that costs >150 million is going to need much more foreign success to carry it unless we're expecting a HUGE domestic take, which looks unlikely.

Pretty sure Arrival was more than an hour long hehe.
 

Really liked how black out showed some of the off planet wars the combat models are used for, what was up with the star wars guys tho

Leto is lame ass hell, maybe hes better in the film.

Nowhere to run was good until those movie thugs showed up and started being cliche movie thugs.
then Bautista became Bourne and instead of the classic grab a part of them and grip with jaws of life strength(although he may not be a combat model so he did have to fight but he fought like he was trained)

I know the shorts are created by different people but the guns seem weird
In blade runner the blade runner in the intro is shot with a gun powerful enough to put him through a wall, but the guns in the shorts suddenly have normal strength?
Deckards gun didnt throw the replicants around as much but I always figured that was because they were replicants?
 

darklin0

Banned
Wait, Villeneuve is directing this? How did I miss that piece of info!?

I was a bit tepid and was probably going to wait for the BD release, but knowing he is directing this I am 100% going to watch this in theaters.
 
Bowie would have rocked. don't really get the complaints about Leto though. his performance seems to really fit alongside some of the stuff we saw in the original with Roy Batty and Tyrell in particular, a bit cheesy and prophetic.

in fact although Bowie would obviously have a greater presence it would probably end up similar to what Leto is doing, people just hate the guy because he's so easy to not like (his corny interviews and rock band). tbh I think Villeneuve made the smart choice with casting him, he knew what he was going for.
 

duckroll

Member
Is there a reason why I should trust these early reviews this time?

I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. It's perfectly possible to look at each impression individually and identify who the writer is and whether the writer's tastes and general impressions on films lines up with yours historically. Or you could just wait a mere week and watch it yourself. So many options available to us in this vast world of information.
 
cant be as boring as the original.

Orignal is pretty and boring. So yeah, easy.

I hated the original Blade Runner it was boring.
haha, nah, opinions, opinions. It's all good
Turns out directors matter.

It's a real shame we'll never get David Bowie in the role like they apparently originally wanted, though.
Oh damn. Would have loved to see that. :(
 
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