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

golem

Member
This movie did a good job selling how strong Replicants are compared to humans. K's back snap, that brutal neck break, and Morgan smashing K through the wall were intense.

I liked how he was super proficient with his gun too

One thing Im wondering about.. if K's model was made to be obedient how did he override that to essentially lie to his boss and decide to help the child? I guess the purpose of the second baseline test was to show us that his programming in that regard has failed and is operating outside his parameters? Weird that she would just let him go then, although I guess she felt affection of some sort for K.
 
And I'm sooooooo glad the movie took time for us to have the scenes that we did with them.
As soon as I realized where they were going for with the AI character, the movie was elevated. I did not expect to get a philosophical musing on AI and humanity, in Blade Runner.

That Denis was able to do that, do it well, give that its own fleshed-out arc, and have it fit naturallly within the larger Blade Runner sequel story and relate to the protagonist's own development and larger themes, is insanely impressive
 

Moff

Member
I liked how he was super proficient with his gun too

One thing Im wondering about.. if K's model was made to be obedient how did he override that to essentially lie to his boss and decide to help the child? I guess the purpose of the second baseline test was to show us that his programming in that regard has failed and is operating outside his parameters? Weird that she would just let him go then, although I guess she felt affection of some sort for K.

was I the only one who thought that when she was in his appartment she wanted to... see if he had any pleasure programming? if you get my meaning.
 

Spoo

Member
As soon as I realized where they were going for with the AI character, the movie was elevated. I did not expect to get a philosophical musing on AI and humanity, in Blade Runner.

That Denis was able to do that, do it well, give that its own fleshed-out arc, and have it fit naturallly within the larger Blade Runner sequel story and relate to the protagonist's own development and larger themes, is insanely impressive

It's absolutely one of the best parts of the movie. In the first movie, we spent a lot of time wondering about the viability of a human and replicant's relationship -- now you get to have that same thought, by empathizing with (surprise!) a replicant. By seeing everything through K's unambiguously replicant existence, he is humanized, and we get to turn the questioning towards an even more restricted form of existence -- one that can't even feel, unlike a replicant. And we're reminded, at the end of the movie, that Joi is still a product, that her feelings and that relationship is as much an artifice as Rachel was when we first saw BR. The ambiguity of what is real and what isn't, or even if any of that matters, ultimately, is where both the original movie and this one are at their finest.

And it does all this as a *sub plot*. (Dune is going to be fucking amazing)
 

kevin1025

Banned
I liked how he was super proficient with his gun too

One thing Im wondering about.. if K's model was made to be obedient how did he override that to essentially lie to his boss and decide to help the child? I guess the purpose of the second baseline test was to show us that his programming in that regard has failed and is operating outside his parameters? Weird that she would just let him go then, although I guess she felt affection of some sort for K.

Yeah, there was a sort of motherliness to the way she treated K, but then in his apartment she almost treats him like a curiosity rather than a potential equal. Plus I think after his baseline test fails, he covers by saying that he found the child, that it's done and dealt with. I don't think he ever lied, since at that point he thought he'd found the child (himself).

Also love how the Skinner nickname, and the mention of skin and apology during the morgue scene was never really delved into, or why he flinched from some of the other cops, like K had skinned someone in his past or something. Leaves some mystery to things.
 
Also love how the Skinner nickname, and the mention of skin and apology during the morgue scene was never really delved into, or why he flinched from some of the other cops, like K had skinned someone in his past or something. Leaves some mystery to things.

Pretty sure that's just another slang term for replicant, derived from 'skin job'. It's a slur.
 

golem

Member
The scene where Joi tells the prostitute to leave because she has no need for her anymore: that scene nails her as a human. She might as well have a soul.

The main thing I would want to examine on a re-watch is trying to determine if Joi was sincere or if it was all programmed, or if that distinction actually matters at all.
 

Moff

Member
I wonder why Joi didn't tell K about the chip the hooker slipped into his coat? did she really miss it? she picks up anything in his surroundings.
 

kevin1025

Banned
I wonder why Joi didn't tell K about the chip the hooker slipped into his coat? did she really miss it? she picks up anything in his surroundings.

Right after she puts the tracker in his coat, you can hear the boot-up song for Joi. I guess she wasn't on at the time.
 
The main thing I would want to examine on a re-watch is trying to determine if Joi was sincere or if it was all programmed, or if that distinction actually matters at all.

It felt very sincere to me. You could see the jealousy on her face. And also, K wasn't there. It was an exchange purely between the prostitute and her.
 

Spoo

Member
The main thing I would want to examine on a re-watch is trying to determine if Joi was sincere or if it was all programmed, or if that distinction actually matters at all.

I feel like that's just another one of the movies philosophical ambitions; to make us wonder about the different sides of Joi; something that isn't even flesh and blood, unlike the Replicants.

Joi herself seems to understand her own existence and limitations in the same way a human might recognize their own faults. She's ones-and-zeroes, and missing a physical way to interact. When she's given a gift that allows her more dimensions of freedom, she's ecstatic. Moments before her death, the only thing she can think to say is to express her love for K. These are all extraordinarily "human" responses.

But she is a product, and it's all but a certainty that other instances of Joi are reproducing her affection for their owners. Even K ultimately acknowledges she does things out of a programmatically-inferred instinct, rather than a "true soul", but at this point in the movie we can't be sure if he's being logical, or simply projecting his very own inadequacies on her.

That all of this is kept ambiguous -- even Deckard's true nature -- is the joy of these films. What you want to be true is as real as anything else in a world without answers.
 

Moff

Member
I also would like to talk about how obvious the "twist" was, that K was not the child.

first of all, when he talked about the memories with the memory engineer (the real daughter), he immediately assumed it was his own memory after she told him it was real.
that id not make sense to me. only minutes before that he asked her if they also used real memories. the obvious thought and question he would have was to ask if or at least wonder if it was really HIS real memory or someone elses implanted in him. I did not think it was believable that he just believed it was his own real memorey and just that they left this out made it obvious to me that it cannot be his own, it felt constructed and cheap.

then the next one was even more obvious. it was actually physically painful how much effort they put into the dialogue between Deckard and K when they talked about the kid and alway just called it kid and child, and never son, when K so obviously believed that he was the son. it really made it very, very painfully obvious that the child MUST be a daughter and cannot be a son and therefore cannot be K. it just made the whole reveal lacking any punch and made me feel absolutely nothing. poorly constructed and written, imo.
 

Rixxan

Member
I also would like to talk about how obvious the "twist" was, that K was not the child.

first of all, when he talked about the memories with the memory engineer (the real daughter), he immediately assumed it was his own memory after she told him it was real.
that id not make sense to me. only minutes before that he asked her if they also used real memories. the obvious thought and question he would have was to ask if or at least wonder if it was really HIS real memory or someone elses implanted in him. I did not think it was believable that he just believed it was his own real memorey and just that they left this out made it obvious to me that it cannot be his own, it felt constructed and cheap.

then the next one was even more obvious. it was actually physically painful how much effort they put into the dialogue between Deckard and K when they talked about the kid and alway just called it kid and child, and never son, when K so obviously believed that he was the son. it really made it very, very painfully obvious that the child MUST be a daughter and cannot be a son and therefore cannot be K. it just made the whole reveal lacking any punch and made me feel absolutely nothing.

Didn't have this experience at all, sorry it fell flat for you
 

kevin1025

Banned
I also would like to talk about how obvious the "twist" was, that K was not the child.

first of all, when he talked about the memories with the memory engineer (the real daughter), he immediately assumed it was his own memory after she told him it was real.
that id not make sense to me. only minutes before that he asked her if they also used real memories. the obvious thought and question he would have was to ask if or at least wonder if it was really HIS real memory or someone elses implanted in him. I did not think it was believable that he just believed it was his own real memorey and just that they left this out made it obvious to me that it cannot be his own, it felt constructed and cheap.

then the next one was even more obvious. it was actually physically painful how much effort they put into the dialogue between Deckard and K when they talked about the kid and alway just called it kid and child, and never son, when K so obviously believed that he was the son. it really made it very, very painfully obvious that the child MUST be a daughter and cannot be a son and therefore cannot be K. it just made the whole reveal lacking any punch and made me feel absolutely nothing.

For the first part, I think we're supposed to see Stelline's reaction as confirmation that the memory is real, because she knows the trappings and how memories are created, and so her confirmation to its realness, for the audience, is that K must be the child. That's how I took it, and that her tears were maybe that the memory was upsetting or disturbing to her. But then after the actual reveal, it makes the scene mean something else.

The Deckard and K talk, Deckard says he bailed before the birth, because that was the plan. He doesn't know if it was a boy or a girl really, I don't believe, especially with the scrambling of the records, and K still believes he's the child.

I could certainly be wrong, though! It's how I felt for both scenes, at least.
 

chaislip3

Member
Absolutely brilliant film.

Gonna need to see it another time or two to figure out if I like it more than the original but I thought that it was incredible. Give Deakins the Oscar now.
 

IKizzLE

Member
Thought the movie was meh. Ks relationship with the AI was a nice call back.

Scenes lasted far too long and I was not a fan of the sound design. By the end of the movie I was like "ok ok I got it, just finish so I can leave". Definitely my least favorite Denis movie out of the four of his that I've seen.
 
I also would like to talk about how obvious the "twist" was, that K was not the child.

first of all, when he talked about the memories with the memory engineer (the real daughter), he immediately assumed it was his own memory after she told him it was real.
that id not make sense to me. only minutes before that he asked her if they also used real memories. the obvious thought and question he would have was to ask if or at least wonder if it was really HIS real memory or someone elses implanted in him. I did not think it was believable that he just believed it was his own real memorey and just that they left this out made it obvious to me that it cannot be his own, it felt constructed and cheap.

then the next one was even more obvious. it was actually physically painful how much effort they put into the dialogue between Deckard and K when they talked about the kid and alway just called it kid and child, and never son, when K so obviously believed that he was the son. it really made it very, very painfully obvious that the child MUST be a daughter and cannot be a son and therefore cannot be K. it just made the whole reveal lacking any punch and made me feel absolutely nothing. poorly constructed and written, imo.

Do you think you could have possibly came into the movie analyzing it instead of watching it? I do that sometimes as well and it can ruin a movie.
 

Addi

Member
I'm trying to figure if there some sort of meta-commentary and allusions to filmmaking with the daughter. She is creating dreams/films, her device reminds a bit of a camera and she is behind a screen. She is protected and sheltered in there so nobody can mess with her, "all the best memories are hers". It's almost as if she represents the first movie and Gosling is this movie. He has part of her in him, but can never be complete, only an echo of the original.
 
I'm trying to figure if there some sort of meta-commentary and allusions to filmmaking with the daughter. She is creating dreams/films, her device reminds a bit of a camera and she is behind a screen. She is protected and sheltered in there so nobody can mess with her, "all the best memories are hers". It's almost as if she represents the first movie and Gosling is this movie. He has part of her in him, but can never be complete, only an echo of the original.

"All the best memories are hers" is a haunting line.

I wonder if her immune system is compromised or if that was part of the cover they made for her. I'm guessing the latter.
 

Moff

Member
Do you think you could have possibly came into the movie analyzing it instead of watching it? I do that sometimes as well and it can ruin a movie.

not on purpose, but I guess if you watched a lot of movies and tv shows you pick up certain patterns and recognize them immediately.
incendies and arrival were a lot more clever and pretty much blew my mind.
 
My mind is destroyed. Fantastic!

My guess is that he is the copy of the original she, as she can't be outside he's her weapon/representative in the outside world designed to solve the memory puzzle and meet her, the one that has to set things in motion.

I won't read more right now, I just came out of the theater and want to think more about it.

What I don't know is who implanted her memories on him?
 

kevin1025

Banned
"All the best memories are hers" is a haunting line.

I wonder if her immune system is compromised or if that was part of the cover they made for her. I'm guessing the latter.

Could be that the uprising saw her as so valuable they locked her away from everything. There was an immune system line, I can’t quite remember what it was though, which had been the excuse for her bubble-like treatment.

Important question:

Was Atari cut from the movie?

It’s in there!!
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Important question:

Was Atari cut from the movie?

Nope still there.

From the trailer I thought we were looking at the floor and ceiling but it was actually the side of two buildings, thought that was interesting.
i love BR

2049 might be better

The story is definitely way better. I loved the first movie because of the themes, music, visuals and world building but the story is kinda just there but this one has all of that and a story that had me intrigued for almost 3 hours.
 
One thing I wish the movie had done, but obviously with time constraints there was no way, was delve more into how human society functions in 2049. In the first one a few quick points explain that the best of humanity has left the planet, replicants are the slave labor force used as labor, and many of the humans left on the planet are flawed in some way - JF for example suffers from some form of Methusalah syndrome.

Those lines are more or less repeated in the sequel when bubble girl talks to K and Jared Leto talks about only colonizing 9 stars and needing more replicants to reach out further, and we see lots of empty buildings and such on the parts of Earth we see, but how many humans are on Earth now compared to off world? Why is Jared Leto so consumed with expanding rapidly, time would eventually allow his corporation to expand across the universe? His whole obsession with figuring out a way for replicants to have babies as the best way to expand out into the stars was just bizarre to me, and since that is the crux of the entire plot it is hard to shake.

Alternatively they never seemed to explore the AI idea any further than as a romantic partner. Why not create tiny replicants that don't grow if you really wanna expand rapidly, there is nothing special about 6 feet size humans. If there are junk yard orphanages with dozens of replicant babies (humans?) that also brings up another source of bio people that can help Leto's obsessions.

I did love Vegas 2049 and loved how they didn't go too deep into what happened, just that something bad and atomic happened 20 years ago.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
This is the 2nd time we got a sequel to a 30 year old property and the 2nd time, it succeeded the original.

I mean, this film just works far better. The ideas are more ambitious, yet more refined. What it wants to challenge the viewer can be completely glossed over in favor of an more solid story than the OG. It's ambiguous, but it's ambiguity isn't an in your face type like the original one. Denis is the real fucking deal. It really had no right to be as good as it was, but the film just fucking works on every level better from a characterization, story, and directional point.

The only thing I feel the original had over it was the setting and music. The score is not better and the original had more style, largely by being the pioneer and not trying to ape it. That's not a bash at all against 2049. They had something fucking excellent shots, but the OG simply did much of it first.

What surprised me the most was Gosling as K. His character had a completely arc. A full fledged arc of seeing himself become more human and his desire, only to take it away, but still finding a way to be "human". Joi added so much to it.

Honestly, I'm just going to rave about it for a while.

i love BR

2049 might be better

It is. A few things are better with the OG, but 2049 just hits much higher. It's amazing how they manage to make a film that is more ambitious with it's ideas, but a more cohesive and clear film to follow. Which was always the weakest part of the OG.

2049 works as a film you can watch on a basic level as a thriller. Then watch completely backwards, picking apart all the concepts it's bringing up with full realized characters incorporating them.
 

Addi

Member
Didn't she say she likes making good memories for replicants? Why does K have her traumatic memory?

She also says it isn't legal to give replicants real memories anymore, she puts a bit of her in the memories, but more like an artist would, not her actual memories. I guess they gave Gosling one of her real memories because he had a purpose to serve.
 

Moff

Member
"All the best memories are hers" is a haunting line.

I wonder if her immune system is compromised or if that was part of the cover they made for her. I'm guessing the latter.

I think it's a cover up to hide her in plain sight. I can't imagine they expect her to "lead a war" like this or make her a figurehead of their rebellion in this condition.
 
Didn't have this experience at all, sorry it fell flat for you
Yeah, same here. I've seen movies with obvious twists before and this movie handled its reveals very well. Particularly because they didn't feel like cheap tricks IMO, it kept us within K's perspective and mindset, and we sympathize with him, so you want to believe he is special and unique and more than just a pawn like he does. We're following the clues and assumptions like he is.
 
Yeah, same here. I've seen movies with obvious twists before and this movie handled its reveals very well. Particularly because they didn't feel like cheap tricks IMO, it kept us within K's perspective and mindset, and we sympathize with him, so you want to believe he is special and unique and more than just a pawn like he does. We're following the clues and assumptions like he is.

Yeah, I was on the same wavelength as he was for that scene. I felt really bad for him, and could empathize with wanting to feel unique like that.

I just wish the delivery method wasn't the replicant resistance people, that was one of the few really false notes in the movie for me. The lines from that one eyed woman were bad and the way they all gathered behind her was uncharacteristically cheesy.
One thing I wish the movie had done, but obviously with time constraints there was no way, was delve more into how human society functions in 2049. In the first one a few quick points explain that the best of humanity has left the planet, replicants are the slave labor force used as labor, and many of the humans left on the planet are flawed in some way - JF for example suffers from some form of Methusalah syndrome.

Those lines are more or less repeated in the sequel when bubble girl talks to K and Jared Leto talks about only colonizing 9 stars and needing more replicants to reach out further, and we see lots of empty buildings and such on the parts of Earth we see, but how many humans are on Earth now compared to off world? Why is Jared Leto so consumed with expanding rapidly, time would eventually allow his corporation to expand across the universe? His whole obsession with figuring out a way for replicants to have babies as the best way to expand out into the stars was just bizarre to me, and since that is the crux of the entire plot it is hard to shake.

Alternatively they never seemed to explore the AI idea any further than as a romantic partner. Why not create tiny replicants that don't grow if you really wanna expand rapidly, there is nothing special about 6 feet size humans. If there are junk yard orphanages with dozens of replicant babies (humans?) that also brings up another source of bio people that can help Leto's obsessions.

I did love Vegas 2049 and loved how they didn't go too deep into what happened, just that something bad and atomic happened 20 years ago.

I'd like to see a lot of this stuff expanded on as well. I know a lot of people don't want another sequel, but I think there's a ton 2049 opens up to make that an enticing idea. The movie seems to imply that Earth is a hellhole that only the poor and Blade Runners live on, and maybe some ultra-rich types like Wallace to do business there. But it seems like most everyone else has moved to one of the other planets they've colonized.
 
While the original look and style hasn't been topped, this movie excels in its own way

If the first movie presents us with dank grimy claustrophobic urban decay, 2049 presents us with a dying husk of a world clinging to life as it withers away.

Where the world of the first movie was confined and drenched in shadow but bustling and lively, the world of 2049 is sprawling and open but empty. Wide vistas of dead landscapes, battered on all sides by encroaching signs of doom. The crashing seas to the west, the radioactive wastes to the east, the endless snow from above.

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2049 doesn't try to outdo the noir aesthetic of the original, and I think that's a good thing
 
I don't normality get into ost from movies, but I loved the music and sounds of 2049. The original music is possibly the goat, but in ten or twenty years time, I think people will look back very favourably on 2049's music.

The first three minutes of sea wall were unbelievable, and we're the highlight for me:

https://youtu.be/8qAEwuZndb8
 

Insane Metal

Gold Member
Just came back from the cinema.

I'm still figuring it out, I guess. The original took me a long time to actually appreciate it, I think this one will be the same. I really liked it but I need more time.
 
I genuinely think 2049 is the better looking film out of the two. The original Blade Runner will probably still have the bigger influence and social impact, but 2049 is the superior work visually.

What Villeneuve and Deakins do with the color palette and lighting rigs for this film is mind-boggling. That opening sequence at the protein farm, the sex scene, K's trek through the necropolis of Las Vegas and especially the lighting of both Wallace's "pond room" and the casino fight during the malfunctioning Elvis Presley projection concert... those two pulled out all the stops.

I don't normality get into ost from movies, but I loved the music and sounds of 2049. The original music is possibly the goat, but in ten or twenty years time, I think people will look back very favourably on 2049's music.

The first three minutes of sea wall were unbelievable, and we're the highlight for me:

https://youtu.be/8qAEwuZndb8

Yeah, I think the score for 2049 is probably a bit underrated right now from most fans as it is the one aesthetic area of the film that can clearly be seen as weaker to the original film. But taken for its own merits and in the context of the film itself, that score is truly a delight imo.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Blade Runner 2049 is the best damn movie all year. Saw it with some friends who hadnt seen the original and one of them agreed too.


So much to think about and digest. I really wanna see it again and I don't usually do repeat viewings at the theatre, if ever.
 
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