A belated pendant to the previous entry with a very slight twist to The MacMahonian's auteurish persuasions: Blade Runner 2049.
Blade Runner 2049 is the 9th feature film directed by Denis Villeneuve, French-Canadian director with a penchant for somber thrillers, his Prisoners (2013) having left a lasting oppressive impression. Last year's Arrival was is first foray into SF and, although not exactly original in subject matter, was nonetheless considerably effective. In Blade Runner 2049 Villeneuve surpasses himself.
Blade Runner 2049 is a rehashed sequel to Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), telling a similar story and asking the same questions a generation later. Scott Free Productions was one of the financers of the project but other than that and subject matter, that seems to have been the extent of the influence of Ridley Scott in this effort. Christopher Nolan was reportedly considered for the directorial chair but, irresistible speculation on what film might have resulted thereof notwithstanding, nothing was lost with the replacement. Now, The MacMahonian's judgement on the original Blade Runner is the following: (1) a very good film, if persistently overrated, (2) an important milestone in SF art direction, as were some other films of the late 70s/early 80s, and (3) a successful adaptation, again like several others, of the prodigiously imaginative fiction of Philip K Dick, the cumulative result being one of the top cult films ever and a staple of contemporary popular culture.
Nothing wrong with any of that, except Blade Runner 2049, although possibly destined to less fame, is better. The underlying themes of social and racial discrimination, the rather more radical question of what is it to be human, presented in a dystopian near-future neo-noir scenario, all come from the prequel, but here the eerie art direction of Concept Art Studios' team, headed by Stanley Stan, the photography of Roger Deakins, reminiscent of that Stephen Soderbergh's alter egos, the vulnerability of Ryan Gosling, succeeding with gusto Harrison Ford on the main role, and the Nietzschean demented evilness (recurrent in Villeneuve's films) of Jared Leto as multibillionaire-with-a-plan-to-destroy-and-remake-mankind Niander Wallace, all combine to give Villeneuve the stuff that great films are made of, and he makes one.
Curiously, Blade Runner 2049 divided the critical establishment along the usual lines on both sides of the Atlantic, but reversely than one might expect: dismissed in Europe, praised in America (at home, I might add, my wife and I loved it, my daughters not exactly). In this regard, I must confess the above lines add little to Dan Jolin's seminal review in last month's Empire, to which The MacMahonian almost entirely subscribes and which I conclude by humbly quoting: “That vast screen will swallow you up and draw you deep into an impeccably envisioned black-mirror reality that you’ll not want to leave, for all its deadly and unsavoury peculiarities. It’s so sensually impressive, it’s hard not to gush”.