The New Blade Runner

**Nijinsky Hind** · 10-09-2017

Loved it...

Loved the long drawn out scenes that everyone is complaining about. especially when K is driving across LA and Vegas.

Loved the Music
Loved it all.
Loved the excellent CGI

Finally a movie that does not explode in my face every 10 seconds. Cool cool flick.

Low key... Surreal... trippy

**mozo-pg** · 10-09-2017

There is already a separate thread.

**rcarlberg** · 10-09-2017

In Way Off Topic because it has spoilers.

**rapidfirerob** · 10-09-2017

Great film. See it.

**Nijinsky Hind** · 10-09-2017

Originally Posted by mozo-pg

There is already a separate thread.

Yeah... Just found it. Thanks mozo

**Gerhard** · 10-09-2017

Is it enjoyable if you are not a psycho Blade Runner fanatic? I've seen the original a few times, but it has been ages. I think I have the DVD, so I'll try to watch it before watching the new one. Is that enough homework to pass the test?

**battema** · 10-10-2017

IMHO: you do not need to see the original to understand the new one, although it does add a bit more context to some things.

There are also three short "prelude" films on YouTube that flesh out a few of the new characters; I'd actually suggest watching those first.

**rcarlberg** · 10-10-2017

Correct. The new BR is a love letter to fans of the old BR; the more you're familiar with the old one, the more you'll appreciate the references in the new one.

Both BR's have pretty convoluted and ambiguous plots, leading the viewer to ponder for days after leaving the theater. If you weren't a devoted fan of the first I suspect the second would be even more confusing.

**ChrisXymphonia** · 10-10-2017

Originally Posted by Nijinsky Hind

Loved it...
Loved the long drawn out scenes that everyone is complaining about. especially when K is driving across LA and Vegas.

Loved the Music
Loved it all.
Loved the excellent CGI

Agree on all counts except the music which I found was very substandard Hans Zimmer fare i.e. lots of clangy, bangy sounds, not much real musical substance. I wounder if that is all due to the fact that Johan Johansson pulled out / was pulled off the project pretty late in the process. I found it telling that the one musical moment that stood out was in fact when they used a piece from the original Blade Runner (not gonna tell what or when it is used but BR fans will know and get the significance of it).

**battema** · 10-10-2017

Yes, I know exactly what spot you mean...but I believe it was a new performance of the piece, interestingly enough.

I do hope at some point, Johannsson's alternate score is released in some form. His work on other Villeneue films (ESPECIALLY Arrival) was pretty excellent, so even if this particular music didn't work with BR, I can't imagine it's not at least interesting.

**battema** · 10-10-2017

Not everything on the score was perfect, but some of the moments (such as the Sea Wall theme) were just about spot-on.

**100423** · 10-10-2017

We are going to see it tonight so I'll finally be able to participate in the other thread.

**3LockBox** · 10-11-2017

I'll say it here rather than thread crap the bigger thread, but I don't get the amount reverence the first movie gets. Yes, the first one deserved all the accolades it got about how it looks - certainly impressive given the year of its release. But I find the story simple and predictable. Sentient androids had been explored before (with more depth) and the main characters, a grizzled bounty hunter and femme fatale, were film noir retreads. The story plods at times and the characters are all one dimensional.

**rcarlberg** · 10-11-2017

The first one has many plot holes too. But the combination of film noir with sc-fi was fairly new in 1982, and struck a chord.

Plus, the music and sound design still are amazing, even to this day.

Sure, Sean Young’s a terrible actress, and Deckard’s character is an enigma, and the plot is Swiss cheese. But the total immersion, the industrial design of everything, the dirty and used look, the way everything fits together seamlessly was revolutionary then and remains so today.

There really wasn’t another movie to equal it until BR2049.

**rcarlberg** · 10-11-2017

Originally Posted by ChrisXymphonia

Agree on all counts except the music which I found was very substandard Hans Zimmer fare i.e. lots of clangy, bangy sounds, not much real musical substance. I wonder if that is all due to the fact that Johan Johansson pulled out / was pulled off the project pretty late in the process.

Agree, the film could’ve used a bit more melody. However the look of the film was very industrial and grey, with zero plants or greenery or animals or any sort of beauty, so perhaps Villaneuve felt “pretty music” wouldn’t have fit.

I wonder if Johannsson would be allowed to release his score? The music to “Arrival”was pretty danged amazing — although, not that different from BR2049.

**battema** · 10-11-2017

I certainly hope so...the two of them working together have yielded some exceptional soundtrack work: Prisoners, Sicario and especially Arrival. I can't imagine Johannsson's score being less than at least really interesting.

**3LockBox** · 10-11-2017

Is BR2049 related to BR549?

**battema** · 10-11-2017

Sure, why not

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 10-11-2017

Well, the original is my favorite all-time movie. Great acting! Every one of the characters is memorable and gives a fantastic performance, even down to the bit players. The story is one of the better, if not the best one concerning androids. What does it mean to be human; are they human, is Dekard human? The world in which the story takes place is wrought in such detail, it almost seems like a documentary of something that actually happened. The music is indispensible to the whole atomosphere and is perfect! Philip K. Dick was a wonder. His plots are like those nested Russian dolls. There's always another layer!

I find it to be the perfect sci-fi movie!

**Baribrotzer** · 10-12-2017

Originally Posted by ChrisXymphonia

Agree on all counts except the music which I found was very substandard Hans Zimmer fare i.e. lots of clangy, bangy sounds, not much real musical substance.

As music, yes, it was pretty thin. But it also fit the grim, paranoid feel of the movie perfectly; and the way it blurred the line between music and sound effects said a lot. That seemed like a world without much music as music, and what there was, was mostly advertising jingles and background Muzak. You're not going to have a classic noir soundtrack in a world like that - not many string-laden Love Themes when love is a commodity and universally acknowledged as such, nor the lonely trumpet of A Man Alone when everybody is a single, disconnected, self-interested, independent entity.

I can also see why it hasn't done so well at the box office: It's like reality, but worse - a world of ecological collapse, of grim poverty for almost everyone, of slavery, of pervading globalism without loyalty or sense of community, of capitalism grown cancerous or socialism so corrupt the difference is erased. It's like Ancient Rome with technology (as are many dystopias). And it hits too close to home.