Blade Runner 2049

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I'm not sure if anything can approach that "alien vibe " of the Ridley Scott original with those Douglas Turnbull virtuoso special effects. Like all great movies it takes time to be recognised for what a staggering achievement for its time it was. The more you watch it the better it gets. It would be an extremely hard act to follow.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut Movie Review (1982) | Roger Ebert
https://youtu.be/iYhJ7Mf2Oxs
[YOUTUBE HD]iYhJ7Mf2Oxs[/YOUTUBE HD]
 
That'll be Douglas Trumbull, not Turnbull

The story goes that Vangelis turned up at his record company one day and asked to speak to the head of A&R. The commissionaire didn't recognise him, asked his name, then phoned upstairs and said: "There's some geezer 'ere wants to speak to you - says his name's Frank Ellis..."

Nick Froome
 
Like all great movies it takes time to be recognised for what a staggering achievement for its time it was. The more you watch it the better it gets. It would be an extremely hard act to follow.

I remember the controversy when it came out about the studio not being happy with it and the ending being messed with.

The problem for Ridley Scott and his team is that they made such an impact with Alien and Blade Runner that it changed what came after from other directors. Net result is that if Blade Runner was released today it would feel normal for the sci-fi genre. The Matrix managed something similar. So it's very impact makes it a hard act to follow.

I think Prometheus suffered (over and above the weak plot detail and script) from this.
 
I'm so looking forward to this movie.

I'm of an age that this film was like nothing else you'd ever seen, in the same way Star Wars was to me as a wide eyed kid at the end of the 70's.

The Rutger Hauer "Tears in the Rain" scene near the end of the original Blade Runner still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU&t=11s

All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain. Time to die.
 
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Ridley Scott described the opening sequence thus:-
“We decided to start the film off with the original starting block of the original film,” said Scott, according to the blog Slash Film. “We always loved the idea of a dystopian universe, and we start off at what I describe as a ‘factory farm’ – what would be a flat land with farming. Wyoming. Flat, not rolling – you can see for 20 miles. No fences, just ploughed, dry dirt.

“Turn around and you see a massive tree, just dead, but the tree is being supported and kept alive by wires that are holding the tree up. It’s a bit like The Grapes of Wrath; there’s dust, and the tree is still standing. By that tree is a traditional, Grapes of Wrath-type white cottage with a porch. Behind it at a distance of two miles, in the twilight, is this massive combine harvester that’s fertilising this ground. You’ve got 16 Klieg lights on the front, and this combine is four times the size of this cottage. And now a spinner [a flying car] comes flying in, creating dust. Of course, traditionally chased by a dog that barks.

“The doors open, a guy gets out and there you’ve got Rick Deckard. He walks in to the cottage, opens the door, smells stew, sits down and waits for the guy to pull up to the house to arrive. The guy’s seen him, so the guy pulls the combine behind the cottage and it towers three stories above it, and the man climbs down from a ladder – a big man. He steps onto the balcony and he goes to Harrison [Ford]’s side. The cottage actually [creaks]; this guy’s got to be 350 pounds. I’m not going to say anything else – you’ll have to go see the movie.”
 
That sounds a startling opening scene. Can't wait to see it. Didn't the original movie have an optional ending of them driving off into the sunset with field on either side, in a conventional car?

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I have a day off today and I'm off to see this film this afternoon. Reviews so far have been good.

I'm expecting something close to a religious experience. :D

I will report later.
 
Mark Kermode's ecstatic about the remake.

I checked a video of his review last night. Like us, he was a well-known sceptic about a potential remake, but loves what he saw.

It's safe to watch, he goes out of his way to avoid spoilers - even the most obvious / leaked ones.

Just click on the link. (How do you click on the link? You just click on the link...)

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Well I thoroughly enjoyed it. Have a wee before you go in, it's two and half hours long and as years advance these things have to be planned in advance!

I can't really discuss the film without creating spoilers, but if you loved the original you won't be disappointed.

The cinematography (CGI these days I guess) was one thing I was looking forward to and there were a couple of standout scenes, actually the one above right at the start of the Kermode review when Ryan Gosling was walking into the wastelands of Las Vegas was one of them. On a big screen is was breathtaking and for me captured what a Blade Runner movie should be.

The soundtrack does a good job considering it was trying to live up to the Vangelis original (which was simply magical so was always going to be hard act to follow).

Unlike the confusion of the first film when it was originally released (tinkered with) you're not left wondering what's what, BR 2049 is altogether better presented but certainly need the full running time to explain everything.

Warning, if you didn't understand/get the original BR or actually haven't seen it, then half of this film will make no sense whatsoever.

In parts it felt like a sequel, but in others felt as though it was doing a better job of exploring the original movie and the moral conundrums that are raised if man kind ever manages to biologically engineer sentient beings.

5 out of 5 from me.
 
Ah Blade Runner, one of those films you're not allowed not to like.
 
Great detailed review Mr Norman. :)

"And why not....?"

I rewatched the original Blade Runner last night, and reminded myself how much clearer "Bladerunner - the Final Cut" is compared to the original, which was badly messed up and confused following Studio-led edits after the initial showings.

(It was tough not to giggle at the video payphones or the klutzy Atari TV's, but that's a different matter.)

If you've always thought Blade Runner was over-hyped, it may well be because you saw the original, confused Studio version, rather than the leaner, Director's cut.

And, as always, it's hard to explain how much of a game changer Blade Runner was when it was released thirty-five years ago in May 1982. That special effect display of a dystopian California was just something we hadn't seen before. Would Mankind make California so awful by 2019 - the year the movie is set? (Answer: Yes, but not in the way they imagined).

Blade-Runner-2-Director.jpg
 
I think the original music by Vangelis made the film, I actually spent ages and loads of money buying a synth trying and eventually succeeding in playing it.
The original along with Apocalypse Now were two films that had quite an impact on me
 

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