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Blade Runner 2049 |OT| Do Androids Dream of Electric Boogaloo? [Unmarked Spoilers]

S

shaneo632

Member
I read in an interview that they apparently did the giant hologram scene practically with a projector and a shitton of fog?

I'm not sure I can bring myself to believe this. It looked amazing. Maybe they digitally treated it to look a little cleaner. If that's 100% practical it's fucking nuts.
 
K

Kenzodielocke

Banned
Patchy said:
I interpreted the replicants telling K that they all had the same dream as him as them wishing to be considered real humans. Being 'born' like one would confirm that they are and they have a soul etc.
Click to expand...

Yes, K has succumb to his hopes and dreams and drew the false conclusion. It was especially strengthen by Joi, who hammered the idea of him being special into his head.

In the end, K has lost everything. Every illusion of hopes and dreams he had, which makes his self sacrifcing ending even better. It is essentially a callback to Batty's ending.
 
N

nOoblet16

Member
shaneo632 said:
I read in an interview that they apparently did the giant hologram scene practically with a projector and a shitton of fog?

I'm not sure I can bring myself to believe this. It looked amazing. Maybe they digitally treated it to look a little cleaner. If that's 100% practical it's fucking nuts.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's possible cause it'd be quite fuzzy and lack definition if it was just fog plus it'd be 2D and would be easier to just project it on a giant glass/plastic. maybe they did that then touched it up with CGI, in which case the only practical purpose it serves is to give Ryan Gosling something to interact with.
 
M

Mr. Tibbs

Member
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this again next week. I can't believe this was backed by Alcon, the same people who produced The Blind Side, Point Break (2015), and Transcendence. I hope it has a huge opening weekend.
 
D

DavidDesu

Member
Just back from it. I liked it. Need to see it again.

It wasn't as expansive a film as I somehow expected it to be. If anything it felt smaller than the first one.


Visuals are stunning of course and the effects, virtually seamless. Looking back at Rogue One, Tarkin was shit compared to THAT. Almost flawless, almost.


My very quick take on it is that I missed seeing more of the world, most of it takes place in very desolate locations and we got one, just one proper scene down at ground level in the city. I feel like I'm missing that atmosphere. Blade Runner makes me feel like there's more world out there compared to this one, for some reason.


Ultimately I wasn't as blown away as I thought I'd be. The surprises weren't all that mind blowing and are all things that had been hypothesised before anyone had seen this.


I definitely love how our main protagonist is given a glimpse of a greater purpose but ultimately just plays his part in someone else's story really.. very bittersweet.


Must see it again. Limitless cinema card, woohoo.

(Btw my cinema, at 7.30pm on opening night had maybe 20 people in it. A shame. Don't expect this to do much at the box office sadly.)
 
J

jett

D-Member
I've seen this motion picture.

Preface: Blade Runner is one my top 10 all-time favorite movies.

2049 is pretty much an indie arthouse movie that has no chance at success. One that somehow cost $150 million what the fffffuuu

I have mixed feelings about it. After the first 15-20 minutes go by, the movie starts feeling really, reaaaaaaaaaaally slow. Like glacially paced. That's a definitely a mark against it. It doesn't have the drop dead gorgeous visuals of the original or the Vangelis soundtrack to offset these pacing issues. But it's an interesting thing to watch. Villeneuve and company definitely had a lot of ideas and by gawd it feels like they put everything and the kitchen think in here. I doubt there's anything major left in the cutting room floor. I'll probably need to rewatch it to get a better idea on the movie. I don't regret watching it at least.

However, I need no such time to talk about the soundtrack. First, there's barely any music in the movie. And when there's music, it's mostly this loud, atonal droning that I could barely qualify as music. Why was Johan Johansson fired to get bootleg Johan Johansson? What the fuck is this shit? One of Zimmer's worst soundtracks in recent memory. The reviewer that said this score was in the spirit of Vangelis must have been deaf. Like actually, not even exaggeration deaf. This is why I can't trust reviewers of any sort.

I find it funny how the trailers were equally deceiving and also showed way too much. Most of GAF figured out the plot of the movie beforehand. At least I know I did.
 
S

storafötter

Member
I just saw the film tonight and I gotta say I am impressed. I was never really that impressed with the original but this film manage to improve everything, while expanding the world and universe. It also in a sense made more sense of the first film. It created something bigger but at the same time connected the old with the new in such a masterful, beautiful way. A true closure to the ending of the first film while being a new story.

I really loved how the film played with our expectations while at the same time hinting at all of the twists. I still have quite a few questions about the ending. Even if I can imagine why things ended with so much closer it doesnt make much sense why Wallace with all of his infinite sources couldnt get to Deckard during the attack. I suppose the Replicants kept him busy or got their revolution going?

Either ways the film had a beautiful ending and nods to the original ending. Sacrificing yourself for a noble cause. I also liked how the film played with us when it came to replicants if they were serving their own curiousity or their master.

I always thought that the lead characters waifu was plotting against him and more used as a tool to spy on him. I just liked how every A.I or Replicant did things their own way. You also got that confirmation with the assasin when she told the Joes boss that she would pretend it was an act of self defense and reminded her that Replicants do lie. They are basically true individuals acting like humans would in unpredictable ways.

I also love the fact the "sex" part was tasteful with no pandering, excessive screen time to convey the message of love and affection. It is rare that I can enjoy a film that goes on for almost 3 hours. I never like films that go past 2 hours as a lot of the time there is a lot of padding. It was very little of it here and it had a great pace.

Not the best film ever but definitely one of the greatest sequels and Sci Fi film I have watched

I do agree that the soundtrack was underwhelming. Despite finding the originals characters and dialogue as charismatic as a plain rock, the soundtrack and scenery was breathtaking. This film didnt spend much time in these locations, but I do think people would have have disliked it for not venturing into more unknown territory.
 
N

nOoblet16

Member
Yea I do miss the busy crowded city scenes, we only had like one scene when that replicant prostitute woman comes up to K to talk.
 
K

Kenzodielocke

Banned
jett said:
I've seen this motion picture.

Preface: Blade Runner is one my top 10 all-time favorite movies.

2049 is pretty much an indie arthouse movie that has no chance at success. One that somehow cost $150 million what the fffffuuu

I have mixed feelings about it. After the first 15-20 minutes go by, the movie starts feeling really, reaaaaaaaaaaally slow. Like glacially paced. That's a definitely a mark against it. It doesn't have the drop dead gorgeous visuals of the original or the Vangelis soundtrack to offset these pacing issues. But it's an interesting thing to watch. Villeneuve and company definitely had a lot of ideas and by gawd it feels like they put everything and the kitchen think in here. I doubt there's anything major left in the cutting room floor. I'll probably need to rewatch it to get a better idea on the movie. I don't regret watching it at least.

However, I need no such time to talk about the soundtrack. First, there's barely any music in the movie. And when there's music, it's mostly this loud, atonal droning that I could barely qualify as music. Why was Johan Johansson fired to get bootleg Johan Johansson? What the fuck is this shit? One of Zimmer's worst soundtracks in recent memory. The reviewer that said this score was in the spirit of Vangelis must have been deaf. Like actually, not even exaggeration deaf. This is why I can't trust reviewers of any sort.

I find it funny how the trailers were equally deceiving and also showed way too much. Most of GAF figured out the plot of the movie beforehand. At least I know I did.
Click to expand...

So you have nothing positive to say about it?
 
M

Mr. Tibbs

Member
jett said:
2049 is pretty much an indie arthouse movie that has no chance at success. One that somehow cost $150 million what the fffffuuu
Click to expand...

Deadline predict it's going to have a strong opening:

The sequel easily will own No. 1 stateside with roughly $45M at 4,000-plus theaters and an overseas opening in the mid-$50M range for a grand $100M global debut. That start easily will make Blade Runner 2049 the biggest box office opening for leading man Ryan Gosling and director Denis Villeneuve.
Click to expand...

I guess whether or not it has legs will depend upon word of mouth.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Kenzodielocke said:
So you have nothing positive to say about it?
Click to expand...

I didn't regret watching it!

I don't know. It's kinda pretty, although very cold, bleak and unemotional all around. I don't know how to feel about it yet. It has interesting ideas about the future and how an android society would function, but somehow it spends a lot of time on this but yet never really develops it very much. There are some cool visuals, but it's no Blade Runner '82 sadly. Harrison Ford has a glorified cameo, the way they used him in posters and trailers was really deceiving. Like I enjoyed watching it, but also was kinda frustrated by it. I mean, serious mixed feelings here.

I guess I'm gonna be in the minority here.

Mr. Tibbs said:
Deadline predict it's going to have a strong opening:
Click to expand...

I've no doubt it opens big, what with reviews and the prestige behind it. I'll be really surprised if it has legs.
 
K

Kenzodielocke

Banned
jett said:
I didn't regret watching it!

I don't know. It's kinda pretty, although very cold, bleak and unemotional all around. I don't know how to feel about it yet. It has interesting ideas about the future and how an android society would function, but somehow it spends a lot of time on this but yet never really develops it very much. There are some cool visuals, but it's no Blade Runner '82 sadly. Harrison Ford has a glorified cameo, the way they used him in posters and trailers was really deceiving. Like I enjoyed watching it, but also was kinda frustrated by it. I mean, serious mixed feelings here.

I guess I'm gonna be in the minority here.
Click to expand...

Let it sink in. I think this movie is amazing and it just needs some time for people. Of course that might be not the case for you, since you have been pretty biased towards this movie for quite some time, judging by your posts.

And hey, Ford was great and didn't get killed off quickly, how about that?
 
S

shaneo632

Member
I think I'm gonna let the film sleep for a week then go catch it again. Got a busy ass week which makes the decision easier.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Kenzodielocke said:
Let it sink in. I think this movie is amazing and it just needs some time for people. Of course that might be not the case for you, since you have been pretty biased towards this movie for quite some time, judging by your post.

And hey, Ford was great and didn't get killed off quickly, how about that?
Click to expand...

I've always been in favor of this movie, solely because of Villeneuve. How have I been biased against it? Because I said Ford sucks? :p

Ford is barely in the movie. He's a non-entity. He did good with the minimal amount of work that he was given. But honestly after two-plus hours with only K his inclusion was distracting, as was finishing the movie with him.
 
S

Steez

Member
NotLiquid said:
That's kind of the reason why he's not exactly "important" in the grand scheme of the plot though, and the movie doesn't exactly pretend he's all too engaging either. He's clearly an eccentric with a god complex. He only really has two scenes in the entire movie, and both of them exist to show that he's cause but not circumstance. It's the same reason why the resistance isn't given much thought; you'd expect something of the sort to exist, especially after the first Blade Runner made a point about the value of artificial life, but it's a given that isn't fully interesting to delve into. The state of the world isn't as important as the characters who try to find their own place in it, which is why Luv leans more towards being the de facto antagonist and much more interesting of a character to speculate about.
Click to expand...


I totally agree with you, but I just thought I might've missed something.
 
N

nOoblet16

Member
Now that I think of it the movie did sort of lack the film noir atmosphere of the original. It tries but it's not quite there. Take Deckard's house for example it's dark and gloomy and dusty and the lights have a sense of volume due to all the smoke/dust. Or the city streets, which we barely see in this film. Wallace's building interiors also doesn't really compare to Tyrell's in terms of atmosphere and art imo. The scene where they darken the windows is such an iconic scene in the original that even Deus Ex used it.
 
C

caesar

Banned
The film definitely went for a sparser, colder monolithic look thats for sure.

I really liked it though, still processing.
 
D

Dash_

Member
I've come to peace with the soundtrack. It's trying to evoke the original while doing it's own thing, which is what the movie is narratively trying to do. There are a lot of moving parts and tonally it has to shift a lot.

Personally,
I wouldn't have used the tears in rain music at the end though. I would have come up with something new and used the original's end credits theme instead for the credits.

Can someone explain how
K knew how to locate the spinner with Deckard and Luv in at the end? Or is it just movie logic at play?
 
Kadayi

Kadayi

Banned
Just got back. Still decompressing. I think it could have done with tighter pacing, but at the same time, I was never bored. I do agree with some that they may have shown a bit too much in the trailers, which I kind of regret seeing now (I'd have preferred going in cold to a lot of what was shown).

Great poignant performance by Gosling as K. I know he gets a lot of shit from some people, but I kind of dug the understated style and how over time things started to wear on him. I think even when we first meet him, he's already at a point where his job, is in itself a labour and it's only really the presence of Joi that is keeping him on the level. Also, Sylvia Hoeks as Luv was great. My read on her was that her drive came out of wanting to be more than a tool for Wallace and I kind of felt sorry for her in many ways.

Definitely going to rewatch it again, though I think a good few days is required so I can digest what others have said and clarify my own thoughts.
 
N

NotLiquid

Member
The movie had a pretty wide palette when it came to aesthetic if you ask me. Blade Runner already did "cyberpunk cityscape" and "warm/ancient structures", which 2049 still does, but adds "cold/misty labor grounds" on top of that which I felt connected everything to add a nice whole. You can read into the class divide of the world and the mood of everything a little more through that subtle expansion, as well as reading into the colors of every scene. The "warm" set pieces are saved for the highly privileged and the luxurious areas, and then an interesting twist is the abode that Deckard has decided to reside in - a massive hotel that takes place in a wealthy high rise district. Everything about this area would have exuded a warm atmosphere already when going by the established Blade Runner rules, but since it's a post-apocalyptic environment, the palette is suffocating, foggy and orange. In contrast to the striking yellow hues employed at Tyrell/Wallace's corporations, this area of similar class has been saturated by disaster and is tainted as a result. It's little details like those that really make me love this movie visually.
 
E

EVIL

Member
nOoblet16 said:
That was my least favourite music in the entire movie, I actually hated it. It felt so un Bladerunner esque that it actually soured my experience of that particular scene and I just wanted it to end. Bladerunner has very crisp and clean sound, this distorted drum heavy sound is not Bladerunner.
Click to expand...

I actually thought it fitted the scene pretty well (the 3 cars leaving the city). but it stayed on too long. would have preferred it to calm down a bit sooner
 
N

nOoblet16

Member
I feel like Michael Mccann (Deus Ex Human revolution/Mankind Divided) would've done justice to Vangelis' soundtrack but he's a video game OST guy so he would never have had the chance to do a movie like Bladerunner.
 
S

Situacao

Member
I don't know why, but the marriage of cinematography and soundtrack on the final fight with Luv made me seriously want to cry.

As a big big fan of the original, I really liked 2049. Sure, it has it's flaws, but, like the original, they don't detract from the overall experience. Best movie of the year for me.
 
MrS

MrS

Banned
nOoblet16 said:
I feel like Michael Mccann (Deus Ex Human revolution/Mankind Divided) would've done justice to Vangelis' soundtrack but he's a video game OST guy so he would never have had the chance to do a movie like Bladerunner.
Click to expand...
Clint Mansell would have had a field day with this. He'd have crushed it.

Looking forward to seeing it again this weekend.
 
N

number11

Member
I was enjoying the movie most when it was just about K and Joi. Deckard's introduction into the story surprisingly did nothing for me.
 
M

mrkgoo

Member
I read that the duplicate DNA was a copy in the records not in the individuals.

Used to hide who the individuals actually are.
 
A

Addi

Member
Reading this thread, two scenes are definitely underrated:
- the amazing love scene
- the fight with elvis popping in and out in the background. That was tight as fuck.

NotLiquid said:
The movie had a pretty wide palette when it came to aesthetic if you ask me. Blade Runner already did "cyberpunk cityscape" and "warm/ancient structures", which 2049 still does, but adds "cold/misty labor grounds" on top of that which I felt connected everything to add a nice whole. You can read into the class divide of the world and the mood of everything a little more through that subtle expansion, as well as reading into the colors of every scene. The "warm" set pieces are saved for the highly privileged and the luxurious areas, and then an interesting twist is the abode that Deckard has decided to reside in - a massive hotel that takes place in a wealthy high rise district. Everything about this area would have exuded a warm atmosphere already when going by the established Blade Runner rules, but since it's a post-apocalyptic environment, the palette is suffocating, foggy and orange. In contrast to the striking yellow hues employed at Tyrell/Wallace's corporations, this area of similar class has been saturated by disaster and is tainted as a result. It's little details like those that really make me love this movie visually.
Click to expand...

There was this subtle lighting thing they did which was really cool: when Jared Leto talks to Deckard, the reflections of light on the wall behind him look like a rising sun. It's a continuation of the symbolism they used with Tyrell, Ra (the sun god) at the top of the pyramid. It's definitely on purpose because behind Deckard the pattern was random.

Regarding the music, I think it fits this movie really well. A full on Vangelis-copy would have been a tad too tacky.
 
Kadayi

Kadayi

Banned
NotLiquid said:
Yeah the movie doesn't commit to answering whether Deckard is a human. You can read a certain ambiguity into several lines but I'm glad they let sleeping dogs lie with this one. Pretty much everyone who worked on Blade Runner except Ridley approached him as being human, including the movie's screenwriter who felt that "asking" the question is interesting but the answer itself is not. This movie follows up on that line of thought pretty well.
Click to expand...

That there is some selective storytelling. The first writer Fancher maintains Deckard was human, the second writer Peoples, however, didn't and it was his treatment that was used for the film because Francher was acting out.
 
S

Static Veins

Member
Wow. What a masterpiece.

Doesn't quite hit the lofty heights of the original for me, with the soundtrack and set design being where it doesn't quite size-up, but that was a riveting piece of sci-fi storytelling with incredible performances and world-building.
 
T

tonysidaway

Member
Addi said:
Reading this thread, two scenes are definitely underrated:
- the amazing love scene
- the fight with elvis popping in and out in the background. That was tight as fuck.
Click to expand...

I found myself getting a Lady from Shanghai vibe during the fight between K and Deckard. You know, that gunfight in a fairground Hall of Mirrors. I was quite surprised at how distracting the concert recordings were, even seen at one remove in a film.
 
S

supernormal

Member
Just came back from the movie. Upon first viewing I feel it's a bit underwhelming, but it's definitely a film I will have revisit and explore to form a final opinion on. I think the first 20-30 min where great, but then I felt the movie just dragged for most of it's runtime. Excellent cinematography throughout, as expected. My favorite scenes were all of the one's with Joe and Joi. They had great chemistry.
 
N

NimbusD

Member
Pachimari said:
I felt nothing when Deckard and the daughter reunited. I don’t think I had much of a reason to care at that point.
Click to expand...
Yeah there's a bunch of tiny nit picks I have, biggest one I think is the movie definitely should have ended on joe dying. It felt very much like once deckard was reintroduced, the whole story was about him all along. Which I thought was brilliant in the sense that it left joe feeling like wtf, who the fuck even am I? But the direction of the film didn't reflect that in a way I felt satisfying, I think it would have been more effective to keep it totally on Joe's perspective.


Also need some help w the fact that so many replicants seem to be able to disobey so easily. I thiiiink I sort of pieced together that deckards daughter is implanting memories in them to prime them towards that? But if that's true it doesn't feel like it holds water as to the logistics of it. Thoughts?
 
Elitist1945

Elitist1945

Member
That was so fucking good. Wow. The early shot of Gosling flying through the city in the storm with the pounding drums was fucking amazing.
 
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