07 Oct 2017

Blade Runner 2049 is of course beautifully shot. It runs at a deliberate, methodical pace that is a nice change from the frantic, hyperactive narratives that most movies nowadays relay. It is not as contemplative in its styling as the first film, but its utterly unrushed quality made it easier to appreciate as a piece of art, rather than as a piece of media I must rabidly consume before moving on to the next thing.

There is a rather unsatisfying element of the film (which may be intentional): we are told, rather than shown, the broader scope of the events that the movie follows, and do not get to see their actual impact on the universe in which the movie takes place. We are told about historical events, and there are some suggestions at what future events might be, but the entire film seems to take place in a liminal space. The true scope of the story indirectly affects the protagonist's world in that it shapes the path of his actions and experiences, but it's not something he's participating in with any direct intention to do so. There are various themes at work in the interplay of the larger context (evolutionary perpetuation, self-sovereignity, biological destiny), but these are not the themes that affect the protagonist or his motivations.

Something that does take up an unusual amount of time in the movie is the personal relationship between the protagonist and his artificially intelligent, holographic companion. There is a rather unusual twist on such an arrangement in that he is more preoccupied with giving her what she wants than asking anything of her. This reaches a rather unusual peak when it comes to sexuality. Throughout the movie, he consistently rejects the attention of the (numerous) women who show interest in him. It is made apparent to the audience that he is simply disinterested. When his companion takes the willful step of calling a prostitute into his home so that she can inhabit the woman's body while they have sex, he finally relents - but only hesitantly. It is heavily suggested that he does it for her, rather than any other reason.

There are several ideological claims made throughout the movie. A couple of the most notable ones are: 

"The ability to reproduce is what makes a being self-sovereign," and

"The essence of humanity is conceptual investment in a belief (dying for a cause)" 

The most consistent undertone of the movie, however, is the implication that that replicants are the next evolutionary step. Their current creator/facilitator wants to populate the stars with them, which is of course what any sentient species would have the ambition to do: self-perpetuation is the primal force of life, biological or otherwise.

The replicants are, in fact, incredibly human in their aspect. This is made apparent with the decision to make the protagonist of the film unambiguously a replicant. When this was revealed within the first few minutes of the movie, I was surprised, and put somewhat off guard. It was not made at all clear what psychological differences were supposed to exist between the replicant and his human counterparts, which established a layer of fundamental uncertainty between the audience and the protagonist. Across the length of the film, the inner nature of replicants as opposed to humanity remains ambiguous. They are even made with the same genetic code, they have desires and beliefs, they experience emotional trauma and PTSD, and it never demonstrated in the film that they are controllable or actually lack free will.

It is perhaps in part due to this that I did not find myself entranced by the film in the way I wanted to be. It did not provoke me to curiosity about the meaning or significance of the narrative events, and the worldbuilding did not invite the kind of speculation that captivates my imagination. There were, here and there, a few moments, a few character decisions that sparked intrigue, but I left the theater without wondering anything, without feeling that my imagination had been tantalized by any new ideas. They are the same ideas introduced in the first movie; expanded and elaborated upon with grace. In this way, I feel the original film is not betrayed by anything, but neither is it brought new life. It is, though, a lovely piece of art, worth the time of the tale.