'Blade Runner 2049' is a 'visual feast' according to critics - here's what they're saying about the 'mind-blowing' sequel
The film is a "spectacular follow-up" to Scott's original "Blade Runner."
It's okay, but it can't quite compare to the original.
"I imagine most audiences will like the film, though it has nothing as striking as Hauer’s morbid majesty or the screaming-dervish demise of Daryl Hannah’s Pris. There’s nothing close to the shock of seeing 'Blade Runner’s' Tokyo-influenced futuristic dystopia — a dismal mix of high-tech and corrosion — for the first time. I thought it was okay."
Director Villeneuve elevates "moviemaking to high art."
"Villeneuve, one of the few filmmakers working today for whom the word auteur doesn’t sound like an unearned affectation, may have fallen a little too in love with his own creation; at two hours and 40 minutes, aesthetic shock and awe eventually outpace the narrative. But how could he not, when nearly every impeccably composed shot — a surreal six-handed love scene; a shimmering hologram of Elvis, hip-swiveling into eternity; a 'newborn' replicant, slick with amniotic goo — feels like such a ravishing visual feast? Even when its emotions risk running as cool as its palette, '2049' reaches for, and finds, something remarkable: the elevation of mainstream moviemaking to high art."
The film's ambition is impressive.
"Despite its flaws, one thing about Blade Runner 2049 is most welcome: it is trying to be about something. It is trying to be deep, rich, and complex. We’ve grown so used to lowest-common-denominator blockbuster cinema that it’s almost shocking to watch a big science-fiction movie, featuring these kinds of stars, swinging for the fences in this way. It’s hard not to be impressed by, and a bit grateful for, the ambition and care evident in every frame."
Villeneuve has proven to be one of the "most exciting" filmmakers in Hollywood.
"That 'Blade Runner 2049' is a more than worthy sequel to Scott’s first film means it crosses the highest bar anyone could have reasonably set for it, and it distinguishes Villeneuve – who’s masterminded all of this, somehow, since making 'Arrival' – as the most exciting filmmaker working at his level today"
"Blade Runner 2049" is "mind-blowing."
"That cyberpunk vision remains just as alluring 35 years later, and 'Blade Runner 2049' could have merely roamed those streets with the same chiaroscuro imagery and delivered a satisfying taste of the same familiar drug. Instead, director Denis Villeneuve goes beyond the call of duty, with a lush, often mind-blowing refurbishing of the original sci-fi aesthetic that delves into its complex epistemological themes just as much as it resurrects an enduring spectacle."
Villeneuve delivers a "visually breathtaking" film.
"Villeneuve earns every second of that running time, delivering a visually breathtaking, long-fuse action movie whose unconventional thrills could be described as many things — from tantalizing to tedious — but never 'artificially intelligent.'"
"Blade Runner 2049" offers audiences a "mesmerizing mindbender" of a film.
"For 'Blade Runner' junkies like myself, who've mainlined five different versions of Ridley Scott's now iconic sci-fi film noir – from the release print to the Director's Cut and the Final Cut (the last two minus that voiceover Scott and Ford hated) – every minute of this mesmerizing mindbender is a visual feast to gorge on."
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