Blade Runner 2049 (Nitpix and Chill)

Last night I was flicking around on Netflix at around 9 o'clock and I scrolled over Blade Runner 2042, which is a Cyberpunk, Dystopian, Science Fiction film and one that had been on my list of films to watch, which I hadn't gotten around to. I don't know why last night was the night to sit down and watch it, maybe it was the partial hangover from a couple of beers I'd had the night before - or maybe it was a silent New Years' Resolution, to finally start knocking some of those, "Oh, I must check that one out." Movies off my list.

I have way too many of them, from recent blockbusters to old classics, there are so many films I get asked if I watched and reply with the usual answer. "No actually, but it's on the list." This immense list just grows and grows each time I'm asked about a film. It happened to me a few weeks back, a few friends were talking about 1917 and were shocked and slightly disappointed that I hadn't seen it, although, it didn't stop them from talking about it, without spoiling the film too much.

I mentioned that it was 9 o'clock, because this film is a pretty lengthy one, rolling in at around 2:45ish minutes. I knew if I started it now, I would be finished by around 12, anyway, I'll stop rambling and start focusing on the film at hand.

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Blade Runner 2042
It's set in the not-so-distant future of 2049 and is primarily set in the futuristic and dystopian L.A. We follow the character K, as he carries out his job as a blade runner. Someone tasked with tracking down and killing old models of replicants who are essentially humans, implanted with false memories, and who, for the most part, believe they are human. But, they're not, instead, they are androids.

They have tests that the androids need to run through, in order to ensure that their minds are still in order, as they are known to go rouge from time to time if not kept track of and they can easily kill humans with their bare hands due to their cybernetic enhancements. In this film, K comes back to the station after hunting down his first target and is asked to perform a Post Traumatic Baseline Test... No, he doesn't have to start playing the bass or anything... I'm sorry. He has to listen to a bunch of emotionally charged questions and respond quickly while they scan his mind for any emotional spikes that are off from his previous baseline; As a way to gauge if he is losing it due to trauma. He does another of these tests down the line and I have to say, I love the repetitive and slightly emotionless responses, it really makes you sit up and pay attention, the sound design also kind of demands your attention, and afterward it almost feels like you were the one being tested.

This film serves as a sequel of sorts to the original Blade Runner film, which I actually only watched a few months ago. I liked the original, but, I wasn't really into it, I think it had been hyped up in my mind as this god-tier film, which, don't get me wrong, it was good, I just didn't think it was the most amazing film in the world. Most likely due to the hype it received from anyone I've ever spoken to about it; I do love science fiction and cyberpunk-style media though. The reason I mention the original is the question I'm sure some may ask themselves before going into this new Blade Runner film. "Do you need to watch the original?"

Yes, and no, but, I would lean more heavily towards no. I found that there were a few easter eggs laced throughout this film and there are a couple of moments where it feels that the film expects that you have seen the original. I did find however that this film is perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet and honestly, it doesn't need the original, everything you need to know is very self-contained in this one. I'd imagine you could watch the first film's trailer and completely enjoy this one in its entirety.

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Spoilers Ahead
During the third act of the film, the character K visits Vegas, at least I think it's Vegas. While here, we're introduced to Harrison Ford, playing an older version of his character Deckard from the first film. It got me thinking though.

Why are all these actors being brought back to play older versions of old characters, but, they're usually bums? For example, Harrison ford is playing Deckard. In the last film, he ended up running off with another Replicant called Rachele. Well, it turns out that they had a baby and because they're androids that's a big deal.

Since all records were wiped during an event called "The Blackout" it's K's job to look for answers and find this child. But, he starts thinking about what he believed were implanted; fake memories. While searching for the truth he finds the home he was brought up in and each clue kind of leads him to discover that he's the child. He seeks out a woman, who is the creator of artificial memories, and he wants her to tell him if his memories are real or false. She says through tears that they're real. Then, in a twist, it turns out that he isn't the child and instead the woman who creates memories is in fact the child.

Did that sound kind of confusing and convoluted? Well, yeah, it kind of is to be honest. I want to focus on one small part of that general plot.

So, he meets with the maker of memories, the woman, who is the child of who he has the memories. But, she mentions that it's illegal to implant someone else's real memories. So, what then? Who implanted him with that memories and why is that never brought up again?

I know it's one small thing, but shouldn't that be answered? Who and why? I guess it was the leader of Tyrell, Niander Wallace, (Jared Leto.) It's hard to say though. Here's another annoying thing.

K has this holographic GF called Joi, and she ends up calling a prostitute for K, so Joi can sync up with the prostitute and it'll be like K and Joi are having sex. Cool sequences actually, where you can see a double vision of Joi and the woman. I was trying to think of how to do that film-wise, in my mind, I would have the two people stand and do the same actions in the same spot and don't move the camera. That would be a hard-to-get perfect, but practical way of doing it. They most likely used CGI to make it line up perfectly. This is actually a film I'd like to watch the making of documentary about it, just to see how they did some things.

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Lighting I'd Love To Replicate

There was another really nice lighting setup I loved, when K meets Luv at the Tyrell Corp building.

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It has a really nice moving water effect. I was watching it, thinking to myself that I want to do something like this. But, how? Okay, I haven't looked this up, there are two ways I can think they did it.

1. They used thin cloth and had them blown and rippling in front of the lighting setups.

2. They set up small glass tanks of water, with fans of some kind to get the water moving above this set, and above the tanks were the lights.

It could be neither one of those options, but, I would like to test these out because I found the scenes with this lighting so interesting to watch.

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Another Nitpick
Anyway, after Joi, K and the prostitute have sex, the prostitute wakes up and puts a tracking device into K's pocket. Which, okay, it just so happens that the spy is the person Joi calls, but, okay. Oh, and Joi can pretty much be anywhere at any time in this house yet misses the tracker being planted.

Then, when K and Deckard decide to talk, people show up. By this stage, K has only asked about the child, he hasn't said, "Oh, by the way. I think I'm your son." Instead, he sits there brooding and is like "So, you abandoned your kid? Wow, so your kind of a loser and a deadbeat dad, who legit ran off to Vegas and sits around all day drinking Whiskey." Then Deckard walks off and K is left alone at the bar hanging out, then a few minutes later Deckard runs back into the room and is like, "Who'd you bring with you?" and K's like, "Duhhh, nobody."

Then, the Tyrell corporation shows up, it's previously established that they want the secret of reproducing Androids because they're getting "Expensive to make." - Which got me thinking. If androids are expensive, why don't they just use humans for all the manual labour and off-world stuff, since the world seems overpopulated and humans are easy and cheap to produce. They could even use criminals to do forced labour and stuff.

Anyway, so we guess the prostitute must have been working with them and there's a fight scene and K gets knocked out and Deckard gets taken. I don't know why they didn't kill K, but they leave him there when they leave. But, before they leave, Luv, who's the kind of, Tyrell henchman. Kills Joi, I thought that was kind of sad. She has this antenna thing that houses the only copy of her, and Joi knows that there's nothing she can do, but, before she dies, she's able to say. "I love y---" yeah, Luv is evil. She's a good actress because, by the facial expressions of, Sylvia Hoeks, you can tell Luv is bad and likes it.

So, Deckard is gone now and is being flown away by the baddies and K is just dying on the ground. Then people come in and you wonder, who's this? It turns out it's the prostitute and some others. They take K and introduce him to the idea of the miracle and their whole organisation, which centres around the idea of androids having children, which makes them "More human, than human."

They want K to fight for their cause and save Deckard. The leader woman of this whole group is so condescending to K, it was kind of funny to watch. He looks disappointed when they say the offspring was a girl and he's looking at them like, oh. She holds his face and is like. "Oh, you thought it was you? Oh, you poor thing. Many Androids wish they were the chosen one." I'm not annoyed about it, I just thought the scene was funny. He's been told "No, your whole life is a lie, all the memories are implants. Then he thought it was all real, but, no it actually is a lie. Silly boy, there there." It's kind of bizarre when you break it down, K has just been shafted out of being the chosen one and is basically told to get over it.

The film has some twists and turns that keep the audience guessing, I think based on the twist in the first film, where it's discovered that Deckard is an android himself. The writers must have been sitting around saying to themselves. "We need to have some twists like that."

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Overall Thoughts
Personally, I think it would have been a bit better if they didn't do the twists. I think it's a bit of a messy film to follow without playing with the audience too much, a couple of twists and a few unanswered questions are fine. But, I think when a bunch of questions are left unanswered it feels rushed, especially for a movie of this scope. The ending seems very sudden as well and kind of leaves us wondering and wanting a bit more in places and a bit less in other areas.

Overall, it's a good film and is worth a watch based solely on the cast, and the look of the film. It has a great style and I think each character has a unique fashion, even the extras look great in what they're wearing and it really helps to sell the world the film is set in. But, solely on the story, I most likely won't be watching it for a few years.