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

Just thinking about the movie fills me with saudade. I need to see it again.

Really hope Denis convinces WB or whoever is handling the blu-ray to put the IMAX version for home release. Ask Mr. Nolan to put in a good word or something.

People said that the IMAX cut had some scenes cropped at the sides to fit the IMAX ratio, which is less widescreen than 21:9. So maybe that cut isn't the best one for blu-ray.
 

Farside

Unconfirmed Member
People said that the IMAX cut had some scenes cropped at the sides to fit the IMAX ratio, which is less widescreen than 21:9. So maybe that cut isn't the best one for blu-ray.

I saw some blurriness around the edges in the RPX Regal screening... I can't wait for the Blu-Ray-- it's going to be a technical marvel.
 
A whole lot of this film seems to be about the ambiguity of whether what we want and love is real or pre programmed to someone else's design. And that ambiguity I think is a really interesting feature of the film and something to take away and think about our own lives as well. It feels like the point of her and Ks whole relationship. Even if it is fake or manufactured they both felt it as real and of their own volition.

That's such a cool theme to take way from this movie and even better than just the basic concept of "can androids be as real as humans" that the first film was about.

I like this framing. Philip K Dick would have been rather proud that his works inspired this script. It's the exploration of these big themes and not the film's performance in cinemas, no not even the brilliant cinematography, not the special effects, nor even the great performances, that justify the coveted status of "instant classic." This film and its forerunner will still be talked about long after technology and cinematic practice have advanced to the point where its production standards, now rightly due to be feted and awarded, are regarded as crude daubs.

I binge-read a lot of Philip K Dick last year. His prose style and his execution are about par for the course, given the dismal literary standards of pulp-era SF. But the ambition, the fearless posing of questions about consciousness, memory, and the basic fabric of reality, are what have made his works still worth reading.
 
Just finished listening to the score on it's own. I guess I'm in the minority when I say I really liked it. Reminded me of a combination of Baraka and Dredd's soundtracks with a bit of The Thin Red Line thrown in.

That Mesa track on the score, hot damn. That and Flight to LAPD are contenders of the year for me.

Yeah the first half of Mesa is amazing.
 
Fucking christ, the Slate Spoiler special is hard to listen to. None of them liked it besides the cinematography, even though they admit they either didn't care or didn't understand the point of anything the plot was doing.
 

jett

D-Member
It's unfortunate this isn't playing at any "big screen" formats where I live. I think I'll wait for the home release for a rewatch.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
What was going on with all the slave kids at that trash heap? What were they mining?

JB, are you sure you watched this movie? Some of your questions in this thread are a bit odd.

Those kids there were orphans but the guy who was incharge of them used them pretty much as slave labor to get electronic parts.
 

Blade30

Unconfirmed Member
That Mesa track on the score, hot damn. That and Flight to LAPD are contenders of the year for me.

Just finished listening to the score on it's own. I guess I'm in the minority when I say I really liked it. Reminded me of a combination of Baraka and Dredd's soundtracks with a bit of The Thin Red Line thrown in.



Yeah the first half of Mesa is amazing.

Even though it doesn't match Vangelis Score there are some really great ones in this new movie, so far I really love the "Sea Wall" track (that part which starts at @ 01.40)
 
Just thinking about the movie fills me with saudade. I need to see it again.



People said that the IMAX cut had some scenes cropped at the sides to fit the IMAX ratio, which is less widescreen than 21:9. So maybe that cut isn't the best one for blu-ray.

That's fair if that's the case. It's just a shame when movies that do employ a taller aspect ratio get cropped to the standard format for home release.
 
Except it wasn't a miracle because Tyrell designed her that way as a replicant reproduction experiment. The other replicants, i.e. Bautista's character, don't know that and thus think the birth was a miracle.
The realisation of this is one of the saddest parts of the film and I glossed over it at the time. It wasn't until I reflected on it that it hit me.
Oh crap, I can’t believe I missed this. This makes the story even better. Like that classic sci-fi premise where an alien/future society discovers something mundane, out of context, and applies some religious significance to it

===

Is it just me, or did others think Replicants were androids? There was even a tweet from a review about how Gosling was perfect for playing a emotionally-muted robot. It wasn’t till the opening crawl here that I realized that they were actually a bioengineered race.

And I really enjoyed this. I liked that Blade Runner and 2049 were so different in their overall structure and story, such that 2049 doesn’t feel like it’s trying to one-up the original. The original was a small simple story set in a world that felt much grander, while this story felt larger and was more of a mystery-chase thriller.

The sci-fi themes and ideas in this made me smile while watching. I mean, one of the main supporting characters is an AI. K having a relationship with an AI, and the questions that raises in how it mirrors humans and replicants, and it all being programming was the kind of sci-fi musing I love, and I didn’t expect to get that from a Blade Runner movie.

Also, shifting the themes of memory from “what is human” to “how can you tell if a memory is real or fake, and what does that mean for one’s inventory” felt like a smart expansion of the original.

This movie was gorgeous. The original’s grimy dirty future is still there, now 30 years more advanced, 30 years more ruined and damaged by climate. It felt authentic and weathered and very carefully designed in how such a world would change over time.

At first, I thought the replicant revolution plot point felt too typical dystopian, but in hindsight, that’s the likely evolution from the isolated events of replicants rebelling that we hear about in the original. And I’m so glad that the finale wasn’t a big attack/rebellion; I was really kind of expecting that when that element was introduced.

Leto’s Wallace was the weak link here. He worked in the sense of his role in the story, but he felt like an overdone retread of Tyrell. I did like the notion of him using a brain implant and camera drones to “see”.
 

caesar

Banned
I think I've decided the first movie is still better.

Nothing can beat the 'Tears in rain' monologue by Roy Batty. Still an excellent movie though.
 

kevin1025

Banned
Even though it doesn't match Vangelis Score there are some really great ones in this new movie, so far I really love the "Sea Wall" track (that part which starts at @ 01.40)

Sea Wall is great, too! I was too busy trying to deal with my drowning phobia during that scene to hear the music. This and Dunkirk has been a wild year for drowning in movies.
 
Fucking christ, the Slate Spoiler special is hard to listen to. None of them liked it besides the cinematography, even though they admit they either didn't care or didn't understand the point of anything the plot was doing.

Just remember that A LOT of critics hated the original when it came out too. This just means that Denis did a perfect job.
 

JB1981

Member
JB, are you sure you watched this movie? Some of your questions in this thread are a bit odd.

Those kids there were orphans but the guy who was incharge of them used them pretty much as slave labor to get electronic parts.

I was kinda tired and can't remember some stuff 😂
 
Did anyone else here really not like this?

I'm not a superfan - there are a few others. I rate it 6/10 - I found some of the plot things a bit eh and the lazy story expositional dumps (and the very late movie "here's a picture" bit to be horribly done) and I don't love how it ended.
 
Loved it. I need to see it again. The only thing that seemed a bit off to me was K determining that his relationship with Joi was fake. I didn't think the film would render a judgement about their relationship like that.
 

Pachimari

Member
Things I didn’t pick up on during my watch:

- Wallace being human and not a replicant.
- Those machines tests keeping an eye on K and replicants and making sure they don’t leave their vaseline.
- K thinking he is the child.
- K looking for Deckard cause he thinks he is his father.
- There being twins.
- The bones being Rachael’s.
- K dying at the end (to me it’s still up to interpretation though).

And hundreds other details I’ve only learned through discussion after watching the movie.

Can K physically touch and feel Joi? I read someone said she solidifies in the rain.
 

Moonkid

Member
It's a shame the movie couldn't get another villain on the level of Roy Batty but I still found the climactic fight on the 'beach' incredible. Sylvia's facial expressions as she's submerged in the water, about to die, were perfect. I think she did well with what she got but I kinda wish the script fleshed her out a bit more. As far as Leto goes he came and did his thing. I didn't really care for his introduction but the conversation with Ford was great.
 

kevin1025

Banned
Things I didn't pick up on during my watch:

- Wallace being human and not a replicant.
- Those machines tests keeping an eye on K and replicants and making sure they don't leave their vaseline.
- K thinking he is the child.
- K looking for Deckard cause he thinks he is his father.
- There being twins.
- The bones being Rachael's.
- K dying at the end (to me it's still up to interpretation though).

And hundreds other details I've only learned through discussion after watching the movie.

Can K physically touch and feel Joi? I read someone said she solidifies in the rain.

Once Tears in the Rain starts playing, K was going to die. I half wanted him to whisper, "Time to die", but silent was 100% better.
 
I think I've decided the first movie is still better.

Nothing can beat the 'Tears in rain' monologue by Roy Batty. Still an excellent movie though.

I dunno. I actually prefer the silence for K's death. Roy's monologue is the stuff of legend, but I feel like it resonated a wee bit more with K just not saying anything and dying in the snow all alone.
 

kevin1025

Banned
I dunno. I actually prefer the silence for K's death. Roy's monologue is the stuff of legend, but I feel like it resonated a wee bit more with K just not saying anything and dying in the snow all alone.

Tears in the rain, tears in the snow.

Blade Runner 2062 will have tears in the ash.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
I've had a desire to rewatch this all day today.

Same here. Saw it last night and the movie's been on my mind ever since.

Best movie Ive seen this year and quite possibly one of the best ever. Definitely the best movie since Dark Knight.
 

Totakeke

Member
I didn't like the choice of the last fight scene where K went to rescue Deckard. For all the terrific imagery they could have chosen, they chose a nondescript ocean with stormy weather? It also felt a bit too easy after all that happened.

Other than that and the one-dimensional villains, I thought it was fantastic. Loved the pacing of the movie and I was engrossed at almost all times. The AI love theme was definitely deliberately added as an additional layer on top of the original movie themes. If we already classify beings as real and fake humans, what's really wrong with fake humans having a relationship with AI?

Two things left ambiguous was how much did the Lieutenant know and it was never deliberated on further why Luv was crying at times.
 

Pachimari

Member
Once Tears in the Rain starts playing, K was going to die. I half wanted him to whisper, "Time to die", but silent was 100% better.
It's weird how I didn't notice when the track kicked in since I had been listening to Vangelis' soundtrack on my way to the cinema lol. I thought K just wanted to rest but yeah, I'm more on the "his dying" after learning Tears in the Rain kicked in.
 
Why was Luv always crying?

Why does K care in the end if he's been the non-chosen one the whole time? Just because he felt the feelings like a real boy?
I took it to present her feeling guilt as she is forced to obey Wallace’s commands. Like she has to kill and watch her replicant brethren die, and there’s nothing she can do about it because she is programmed to obey.
 

Jigorath

Banned
Great, great movie.

I loved how Roy Batty's spectre loomed over the final scene. They didn't quote his famous speech, they didn't need to, the audience felt it.
 
I was kinda tired and can't remember some stuff 😂

Honestly, I thought that part of the movie kinda came out of nowhere. Logistically, that location made so little sense in my head. What are they ripping out? With their bare hands? With portable solder irons? Once the parts are harvested, how does that dude traffic the parts? Also, this dude shows K his "inventory" without checking if he's a legit customer and not a narc?

Visually beautiful, but what the actual hell was that entire sequence other than a prolonged way to have K grab the horse and discover that someone had tampered with the records?

Let's not forget that like two dozen dudes show up pretty fast- on foot through hellish terrain- and just get blown to smithereens moments before and no one in the facto-orphanage is fazed by this dude showing up immediately after.
 

A-V-B

Member
Leto’s Wallace was the weak link here. He worked in the sense of his role in the story, but he felt like an overdone retread of Tyrell. I did like the notion of him using a brain implant and camera drones to “see”.

Really? I thought Wallace was a fascinating counterpoint to Tyrell.
 

cm osi

Member
I think I've decided the first movie is still better.

Nothing can beat the 'Tears in rain' monologue by Roy Batty. Still an excellent movie though.

i think the first is by far better. i liked 2049 but to me it lacks the atmosphere of the first, it all feels too much clean. only "blade runner vibe" i got is when K goes back to his apartment and walks through a bunch of punks. no peculiar locations like the eye maker or JF sebastian house.

there is the old city but all those giant statues felt like nosense to me, why there should be all those gient statues in strange poses like that (and the bees?), they seems randomly placed

also felt you can cut here and there to trim it, it drags on too long. you can totally remove the virtual gf and it will have zero impact on the movie
 

Rydeen

Member
i think the first is by far better. i liked 2049 but to me it lacks the atmosphere of the first, it all feels too much clean. only "blade runner vibe" i got is when K goes back to his apartment and walks through a bunch of punks. no peculiar locations like the eye maker or JF sebastian house.

there is the old city but all those giant statues felt like nosense to me, why there should be all those gient statues in strange poses like that (and the bees?), they seems randomly placed

also felt you can cut here and there to trim it, it drags on too long. you can totally remove the virtual gf and it will have zero impact on the movie
I agree on most of your points, but the "statues" area makes sense, it was Vegas pre-The Blackout, so their would be giant naked statues selling the excesses of "Sin City".

Also, the bees and honey were being cultivated by Deckard. The bees didn't sting K when he put his hand in the hive because they were used to human interaction and wouldn't become defensive.
 

BizzyBum

Member
I know this thread has unmarked spoilers but without spoiling too much how much violence / sex / nudity does the movie have? Is it OK to see for someone younger or not really?
 

Steez

Member
also felt you can cut here and there to trim it, it drags on too long. you can totally remove the virtual gf and it will have zero impact on the movie

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That subplot has so much thematic depth and payoff, it actually might be the best part about the movie.
 

kirblar

Member
I know this thread has unmarked spoilers but without spoiling too much how much violence / sex / nudity does the movie have? Is it OK to see for someone younger or not really?
Violence (stabbings/shootings) but they deliberately don't indulge in nudity though sex is a minor theme.
 
Oh, does anyone else feel like Wallace's character was wasted a bit.

I don't think he's wasted. He's there for exposition, to provide a focus for plot tension, and whatnot.

In the 1982 film, Joe Turkel as Dr Eldon Tyrell has remarkably little screen time, but is given a much cooler emotional palette. I think we only see him twice: first during Rick's visit to Tyrell Corp, then finally when he is murdered by Roy. He's a thumbnail sketch of the cerebral technocrat of the first generation of Silicon Valley. He could be the cousin of Gordon Moore (the Moore's Law guy, who co-founded Intel). But remember: he knowingly created sentient beings to be sold as slaves. His moral legacy is closer to that of Victor Frankenstein, if Dr Frankenstein were an entrepreneur.

Wallace is, in turn, an unflattering sketch of modern technocrats. In a turnaround from the original film, he's prone to spouting references to angels, almost like a parody of Roy Batty (who was quoting Blake). He's openly amoral, perhaps feeling that saving humanity from starvation gave him the right to reset the moral compass. And there's an argument to be made there, if only he weren't so blatantly evil.

In one of the first truly terrifying scenes of a film that starts with a summary execution, Wallace witnesses the birth of one of his creatures, delivers a speech and then stabs her in the womb with a scalpel; she is left to bleed to death.

That's why he's there: to show a world whose moral compass is as out of whack as the climate.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Yeah, you can't remove Joi without removing a massive chunk of what K is and why he does what he does. That moment when the Joi advert calls him Joe, and you see the slogan, is one of the saddest moments in the whole movie and is one of the biggest catalysts for why K saves Deckard. Maybe he isn't special after all, and he's not a living boy and he doesn't have a soul, but he can at least help someone who is and do something special regardless of the rest.

[edit]

A bit off topic but does anyone know where this is from?

Guy on Reddit said he saw it on propstore.com but I don't see it up anywhere else on the internet.

[editx2]

Oh, it came from here.
https://propstore.com/product/blade-runner-2049/promotional-umbrella-and-poster/
 
I... I need to collect my thoughts. I am a huge fan of the first Blade Runner ( hence my username ), and I thought 2049 was a masterpiece. When I think of Blade Runner from now on, I think of these two together, as one coherent whole.

And the soundtrack was amazing - the ambience, the dark brooding atmosphere... Perfection.
 
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