Teaser Review 003 Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049

[10th of October, 2017]

Chance of Success =  hm... definitely over 90%

Trailer Effectiveness =
100% based on the brand name, actors and cinematography but just 70% on its own

Rick Deckard's quote from the original movie:

"Replicants are like any other machines: they are either a benefit or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not my problem."

from concept art to real life: the original's principal concept of masking the futuristic city's underbelly (while the iconic landscape of flying cars between the skyscrapers is still remains to be seen whether it would come back or not) with the visible effects of its citizens, masking the steel jungle behind the thick smokes, in line with Ridley Scott's vision of the dystopian Los Angeles (although this is only one of the two shots possibly take place in the same city). The distinct hue of dark pine green color acts as a visual representation of the bustling imperfect utopia ...

... while the yellowish orange hue is dominant in every scene taken place right after, safely assumed to be somewhere distant from the city and might be even in another continent. As there is a considerable time that have passed between the two movies, it is possible he is walking through a man-made dessert after an apocalyptic event that has taken place and crumbles a city to the ground ...

... especially when he came across a remain of a former statue(?) that used to stand tall but now stricken down and just a shell of its former glory, serving as a nice symbolism of a once thriving society now forced to lie down in the dirt.

Walking past the desolate wasteland, he finally reached his destination, an old vacant building that survived whatever the incident that left the place devoid of people.

This is the first visible structure in this follow-up and the tangibility of the location they shot in is a good sign in keeping it authentic in today's current culture of CGI fest studio movie.

(it was revealed to be in Korea but not explicit to be whether in North or South because of the sign at the front of the building)

Finally seeing the main protagonist in the flesh, he was keeping his slow but steady pace from earlier in the desert all the way into the building, knowing he was close to his intended target and try to keep on his toes as much as possible,

He played a tune on the piano (see callbacks below) and speak of the devil ...

... out comes the man in question, definitely appeared to be affected by the thirty years in isolation and gives the argument of his own making that much more credence in both ways.

"I had your job once. I was good at it."

"Things were simpler then."

Just based on the dialogues alone, it's suffice to say they both were in the same line of job before and if you don't want to be spoiled anymore, please skip the rest of the review and even the released official storyline.

[!Possible Spoiler Alert!]

Ryan Gosling is portraying another Blade Runner in this movie, a special police operative that is tasked in hunting down the Replicants, robots(?) manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation for off-world colonies, that went back down to Earth illegally and went in hiding. As the first movie revolved around his last assignment, this sequel would be focused on the new operative, Officer K, whom in his uncovering a secret led himself to track down the once legend and possibly helping him in the end, as his reply to his senior indicated that something has changed in the course of thirty years after Deckard's last job and that 'secret' would be the major factor in making things more complex.

[!Possible Spoiler Alert!]

[!Possible Theory!]

His statement could be related to one big theory: the Replicants are now able to pass 'Voight-Kampff' test that Blade Runner designed to distinguish between them and mere mortals, and now the new Officer needs help from the grizzled yet experienced veteran to help him in tracking them down. That theory of him being a Replicant could play a big part as well since although he definitely looked the part of an aging man, he could be just one of the Replicant that the Corporation planted as a Blade Runner and did his job to the best of his abilities and it made sense he would be the best because of his artificial superiority (a lot of parallels could be seen between this franchise and the now excellent Westworld tv show and Deckard's role could possibly be just like Bernard's in there). The original expire date of a Replicant should be four years only in its cycle and it would be decommissioned or forcefully retired but when they're left be, could the synthetic skins of a Replicant aged with time? In the familiar situation of an actor coming back to one of his most iconic roles, Arnold Schwarzenegger's return as the Terminator was justified in the way that just as I mentioned above. Whether or not his change in appearance and voice (notice the difference between the first dialogue from him taken straight from the first movie with his dialogue currently in '2049') would be touched upon just lightly or would be the main focus is still up in the air.

[!Possible Theory!]

[Callbacks]

This particular scene of them meeting each other at the same time has a number of callbacks: the gun could possibly be the same as the one used by him during his last job while that tune he played was the same tune that ended the movie while still leaving the question, whether or not Deckard is a Replicant, opens although the appearance of a dog there in the room is an anomaly for now.

This last scene is the most reminiscing of the signature scene in the city when Deckard was looking for the hiding Replicants, capturing just the right atmosphere of a Blade Runner movie with the same hue returning while some modern update could be seen albeit briefly.

(if I'm not mistaken, that red sign on the left of the screen was in Hindi and was spelling "Bar")

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+ Highlights +

Roger Deakins' cinematography shines through all the shots in the teaser,

as splendid as the cast are now, the coupling of the weary Ford and determined Gosling would make it possibly a highly engaging duo to tie down the narrative down.

? Points of contention ?

The first quote was of Rick Deckard and how his principle at the start of the first film was changed indefinitely at the end of it especially considering he could be one of those that he ruthlessly hunt and put down before. How much has changed during thirty years?

Narration played a huge part in one of the cuts of the original film ... would it be used again?

A new up and coming capable director is taking the mantle after proving his mettle in movies in general with Prisoners and Sicario and science fiction genre with Arrival. Since the original director is taking a backseat, how much would he influenced the movie as a producer and how much would the director himself could do without much restriction in his movie making process?

How does the dog came into play in the movie?

- Lowlights -

none

! Scenes to Admire !
Atmospheric first look of the city filled with man-made's pollution,
the main protagonist walking into a dessert without any clear horizon,
a remain of a past civilization in the middle of the dessert,
a posh interior of a unit inside the building untouched by the elements outside,
the first clear look of the city's underbelly reminiscing of the original's scene.

Cast

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, Ryan Gosling as Officer K,
Ana de Armas, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, ...

- IMDb - wiki - 

~ Synopsis ~

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

(Director - Denis Villeneuve [Arrival, Enemy, Prisoners, Sicario], Cinematographer - Roger Deakins [No Country for Old Men, Sicario, Skyfall, the Shawshank Redemption], 
Writer - Hampton Fancher [ Blade Runner], Michael Green [Alien Covenant, Americn Gods, Logan], Philip K. Dick [original novel], Genre - Neo Noir, Sci-Fi, Steampunk)

Source: Collider

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