I meant to see _Blade Runner 2049_ the day after rewatching the original,
but my car forced me to catch it in Chicago, where I narrowly missed
Claire Denis' new film at the Chicago film fest! The new BR succeeds in continuing the original's story and themes, but does surprisingly little
else.

Interestingly, Armond White compares it to Wong Kar-Wai's _2046_. His
is a surprisingly negative review given how much he liked director Denis Villeneuve's films in the past. I have forgotten that Wong most likely
did get inspiration from _Blade Runner_. After all, that year would be
Hong Kong's second, ultimate expiration date, where all traces of its independence is scheduled to be wiped out (not that the Chinese government
is waiting till then). Wong's early films share the simmering rage about impending obliteration that drives the replicants in Ridley Scott's original _Blade Runner_ back to earth ("an itch that you can't scratch"). _2046_
weaves green and purple hues into abstract art -- marking Wong, unmistakably, cinema's foremost answer to Claude Monet. The harder Villeneuve tries to impress with widescreen vistas in _BR 2049_, the more hollow his artistry appears; it doesn't help that his film dispenses with the 4-year lifespan,
the most interesting part of the original _Blade Runner_.

Unfortunately _2046_ is not the only comparison that fails to flatter
_BR 2049_. Simply put, exploring the humanity of replicants will be
futile after Ronald D. Moore's _Battlestar Galactica_ reboot. The
40+ hours of that brilliant TV series have encompassed every possible
aspects of cybernetic organics spirituality: rebirth-by memory download
(one of them keeps committing suicide in search of transcendence),
mental projection (internally altering the surrounding, turning
spaceships into opera houses), even outfitting the tribe with a
monothesistic religion. The much underrated prequel _Caprica_ adds
social media, data mining, and virtual reality into the mix. In
_BR 2049_, the replicants are brawny dullards, not scary artificial intelligence's that will render humans obsolete. It is hard to root
for Ryan Gosling's K, an affectless super-foot soldier who may as well
be in a Marvel Comic. Towards the end he mellows out when haunted
by the suspicion that he may be the chosen one, born of replicant
flesh -- another concept used in _Galactica_ but at least it makes
him far more interesting. It makes you wonder why that theme is
not introduced sooner.

With Los Angeles still thoroughly tattooed in Asian advertisement
in _BR 2049_, the film somehow fails to have a single Asian speaking
part. The ghetto filled with child laborer is clearly aimed at
present-day Chinese factories, but predictably the director loses
his nerve and populate it with Caucasians. The greatest failure
of the film is its lack of an enduring sense, or image, of mystery.
What is that greenish blackhole/gateway in _2046_? Why does Roy
spare Deckard? What exactly is the resurrected Starbuck?
Everything in this film is tied up too neatly, as Villeneuve
is prone to do.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)