Blade Runner 2049 is a futuristic future masterpiece

One of the most terrifying moments in a filmmaker’s career is when the film plays to an audience; that split-second before the film flickers on screen is weighted with expectation on both sides. The audience is demanding to be engaged and the filmmaker must live up to that anticipation. For just a few seconds the relationship becomes adversarial. And how much more febrile is that moment when the film in question is a sequel to a revered classic.

Watching Blade Runner (1982) for the first time on its initial release was, for reasons too tedious to explain here, one of the most purely cinematic moments of my life. The film is one of my favourites and I confess, 35 years later, when the lights dimmed and the metaphorical curtains parted on Blade Runner 2049, I held my breath for a moment.The opening shot of the original movie is iconic. One of the stumbling blocks for any sequel is how to match that. I can’t begin to imagine how director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins felt as they planned this shot.

Happily for me, the opening of the sequel is as satisfying as the original and in its execution provides a lot of clues to the way the new film will progress. It is, to some extent, a mirror of the original which reverses our perspective and this is a recurring theme throughout the sequel where the first film is referenced, but only obliquely.

The world of 2049 has not improved much since the first film. It is more toxic, murkier, wetter – though I never thought that possible – and everyone who is anyone has gone off world. There are some improvements, such as a new generation of replicants to do most of the significant jobs with extended life spans. There are fresh drawbacks too, such as a ten-day digital blackout which, in some respects, has rendered the world frustratingly incomplete.

Amid this backdrop we discover K (Ryan Gosling), a blade runner whose job is to track down rogue replicants. We encounter him in media res as he pursues one of his cases. The action is brief but inevitable and the replicant is terminated. However, in the best traditions of future noir, another body is discovered – or at least its remains are discovered – and this sets K off on a mystery whose resolution might change the very nature of the world of 2049.

There have been pleas by the film makers not to give away too much of the plot. To be honest I don’t think it matters; this film is so good that I can’t imagine anyone being upset by knowing what happens. The charms of Blade Runner 2049 are legion and the resolution of the plot is the least of them. However, let us agree to be spoiler-free

In truth this is a film which is light on plot, especially so for a film that runs for two and three-quarter hours. For me though the thin plot is only the framework for a story which is rich in imagination, provocation, and encourages a genuine spirit of enquiry. Blade Runner 2049 is a film which poses big questions without ever answering them, however days after the film ended I am still thinking about it which for me is a real sign of greatness.

There is a Kafkaesque quality to what we see here. It’s probably significant that Gosling’s character is initially called ‘K’ and then when he chooses a human name, it is Joe. The hero of Kafka’s The Trial, after all, was Joseph K. Like his namesake Gosling is pondering much about his relationship with the society he lives in throughout the film; Gosling’s blank canvas expression works perfectly here given the potentially artificial nature of his character.

There are many call-backs to the first film in Hampton Fancher’s screenplay , not least the appearance of Harrison Ford as Deckard, the original Blade Runner. It is almost two hours into the film before he makes an appearance but he does not disappoint. Other call-backs include Sylvia Hoeks as this film’s version of Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty, and Ana de Armas who takes on an updated version of Pris, the role played by Darryl Hannah first time round.

The film’s weak link is Jared Leto – who is seldom anything else for me. He plays Niander Wallace, the industrialist who has taken over the Tyrrel corporation. Leto is all style and no substance but his character does provide one crucial insight into a significant plot line from the first film which should make you look at both films in a new light.

The real star of this film is its execution. There are few mainstream directors currently working as thoughtful or intelligent as Dennis Villeneuve and his handling of the film is superb. The real star however is cinematographer Roger Deakins; the first film was a noir triumph and this time round Deakins gives us light, but not much. A maestro of murk he shoots the film in a toxic palette of greens and oranges and sulphurous yellows and adds so much to our appreciation of the film that his work is almost like an additional character.

Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner took a long time to be recognised for the magnificent film that it is. Its influence can be felt in so many of the scenes in this film which remind you of films such as A.I (2001) or Her (2013), until you remember that they are dealing in tropes laid down by Blade Runner. The reception for Blade Runner 2049 is much more adulatory but I feel certain that, just like its illustrious predecessor, the reputation of this most intelligent of epics will only be further burnished in decades to come.