Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049, released in 2017 is a sequel to the 1982 classic Blade Runner, which was based on the novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick. Blade Runner 2049 starred Ryan Gosling, with supporting roles by Jared Leto, and Harrison Ford reprising his role from the original film. I was really excited for this film when it was released, but sadly never had the opportunity to see it until last night. First big word of advice, if you are tired, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE. This film is first and foremost slow, really really really fucking slow. Don't expect the action of the original film, but instead be prepared for some of the slowest pacing I have ever had the misfortune to witness in a film, add on top of that long monologues, and dialogue scenes, a plot that struggles to maintain its cohesiveness, dark oppressive sets (which do fit the post apocalyptic theme I suppose). To sum this film up in one word, boring, there that's it no reason to even go on with the review. The visual effects are beautiful, and impressive, though honestly give me the effects of the original film any day, they were much more interesting to look at, but from a technical and artistic view, this is a beautiful film, and an amazing work of visual art. The acting is unremarkable and boring at best, and though the film really hypes the fact that Harrison Ford is in it, he plays what amounts to little more than a cameo, and you will spend around two hours wondering where the hell one of the top billed actors in the movie is. Speaking of how long you have to wait for Ford's appearance, be prepared to wait a long time for pretty much everything, as this film is really long, too damn long. I would equate this film to feeling like a drive through the entire state of Nebraska, just hours of sitting and doing nothing, and wondering if the damn thing will ever end, or get even a little exciting. So the last time a film made me feel this tired and fall asleep was the entire Matrix series, which was the first film I ever fell asleep in a theater during. But the way in that the Matrix movies over stimulated me and caused me to get drowsy, this film did the opposite by just being overwhelmingly stimulating and causing me to fall asleep multiple times. I am sure this is a great film, and I am sure that upon multiple viewings I might actually love it, but I am not rewatching it tonight, because I know the damn thing will only put me to sleep again, and honestly with my too watch list being so extensive, I am not going to put in this type of time commitment for a movie that upon first viewing I found to be painfully slow and boring. I could talk about the themes of the film, but honestly I don't want to, I could talk about the debate of whether this film is sexist, or whether the film is criticizing sexism in society...but honestly it would require me to rewatch the film to analyze those issues again, and I really just can't bring myself to suffer enough to do that at this time. I am sure somewhere in this agonizingly slow and long film there is a sci-fi classic and that it will become an important film. But it was a box office disappointment, and honestly I can understand why. The film goers were not swayed by the multitude of critics singing its praise, and they showed that by not going to it, causing it to be considered a loss for the studio. It isn't often that I talk about numbers in my review, but this film needed to make around $400 million dollars to break even, and brought in a world wide box office sales of $259.2 million dollars, which is a pretty significant loss considering how much it was hyped, and how positive the reviews were. But why? Part of it as Ridley Scott pointed out is the run time to which he said, "It's slow. Long. Too Long. I would have taken out half an hour." By the way when I say long, I am talking that this film is 163 minutes, and as slow, so agonizingly slow. The marketing also seemed to only attempt to appeal to nostalgia and to fans of the original, doing little to make people who were not fans of the original to desire to go to it. I don't know, maybe this film will someday become a classic, I mean look at how slow and long 2001: A Space Odyssey, and how it is one of the greatest films of all-time. Maybe I will review this film in the future and it will have become one of my favourite films, but I definitely will make sure I am not tired next time, because this damn thing is like taking a sleeping pill after eating a Thanksgiving dinner. Would I recommend this film? As of watching it last night, Nope. Ask me again in the future after I have watched it a few more times. So I guess as of right now, I just don't feel I can honestly answer whether or not I would recommend it. For now I will place this film on a shelf, and see what is next up for tonight's cinematic adventure.