Blade Runner 2049: The Last of a Dying Breed
Interesting is the first word that comes to mind after seeing "Blade Runner 2049". Set in Los Angeles in the year 2049, the film is the tale of K (Ryan Gosling), a new breed of human replica designed to follow orders and kill older model human replicas. Predictive programming intact, the film seems to take place after World War III, leaving parts of Los Angeles ripe with nuclear radiation and the entire city covered in smog and rain. As if the idea of bad weather in Los Angeles isn't bad enough, the human population is being replaced by human replicas and reality is being replaced by virtual reality.
On a routine hunt, K stumbles across the case of a lifetime; and that is the case of a human replica that reproduced. An ex-Blade Runner (Harrison Ford) who had a baby with another replica named Rachel. Once the word gets out, K is assigned to the case and charged with finding the child and terminating it. On his search, however, K gets clues that point to himself as possibly being the child. His memory, which is supposed to not be real, seems to match up with the clues leading to the child. What once wasn't real, now seems real to him; and he doesn't know who to believe, not even himself.
The film kind of reminded me of "Ghost in the Shell" except with less detail about how the replicas are created and less impressive fight scenes. But, overall, "Blade Runner 2049" is a better story. As the film goes on, K becomes more and more human as he tries to fight and decide whether he should follow orders or protect his own kind. And so it becomes a moral issue, an internal battle with himself that manifests itself into a battle against the state.
The film is definitely worth seeing, if not for the fact of just seeing Harrison Ford kicking a little ass and being just as heroic as he always is. Gosling gives a compelling performance as well. He's naturally a stoic person anyway and it plays well with his role as a human replica. But the film can be an emotional roller coaster as well. I give the film 3 and a half out of 5 stars; I would've given it 4, but I'm a little biased towards action. This isn't an action film for sure, but the few fight scenes to me are unimpressive; especially when compared to films in recent years. However, the story delivers what the film lacks in action.
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