Further Reflections on Bladerunner 2049

This is Way Full of Spoilers...

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In an earlier post I stuck my thumbs, way up for the Bladerunner sequel. I have also viewed Razor's video film review and I can't say I disagree with him much, except while his criticism are valid, do not alter in anyway what a great movie the sequal is.

I felt the new movie was packed with subtext. That the ideas were so very big and so much was packed into this "slow" movie that any legit critique on the films visual product just doesn't distract from the movie's storytelling achievement.

Some of the obvious subtext packed into the visual narrative were the male car power symbol and the replicant Love's savage "womb" murder of the police chief's tightly bound emotional messiness. And none of that film noir voice overs to tell you what is going on or what people are thinking and feeling. The workmanship way the protagonist was hauled out of the skies by the garbage pickers in San Diego, loved it.

Visually yes the movie has stunning scenes, but as would be expected it is not so much the elements but the expert handling of space. Intense focus on the individual while moving through various layers of physical space from the claustrophobic to vertigo inducing openness. This never lets up. No matter where our main character finds himself there is always the pressure of the "other". Never does our hero feel alone, but at the same time completely isolated.

These are all boringly, maddeningly trite cliches fleshed out during early twentieth century literature. I think it was called "Modern" literature or some such. Sartre covers all this.

I like the fact that "every" current replicant is set up to believe they are the miracle child.

The very human police chief, she is awesome. Could have done without Deckard. Really, the time involved would erase his existence. The concepts being tackled could have withstood this earlier character's abscence. Shouting in the car, asking questions with no answers. Big fat rabbit hole.

The villain's answer to the paradox is simple and archetypal. Unmoving cosmic forces given the face of flesh. Good sci fi movie. I look forward to watching it again and letting it marinade in my psyche some more. And all this yes the criticism are all still valid and it doesn't matter.