Like A Fine Wine: Our Review of 'Blade Runner 2049' on Blu-Ray

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Very often, brilliant pieces of art just present more and more questions. Dealing with the ‘Blade Runner’s’ now 30 year later is no exception.

Easily the most anticipated sequel of the year, decade and so far the century; Blade Runner 2049 hit theatres in many ways that the original did; appreciated but left with scads of material to debate. Now thirty years later audiences are treated to a truly epic film with scope and scale that leaves you in awe of the images and since it’s available on Blu-Ray today, it lends itself to even more dissection and discussion on multiple viewings.

For every answer that comes around, that can often be that many more questions. Blade Runner 2049 takes us to thirty years after the events of the first film we meet a new Blade Runner; K (Ryan Gosling) unearths a long buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into complete chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD Blade Runner who has been missing for decades. K quickly learns that Deckard didn’t want to be found and the truth that could shatter the human race stands on the brink as both man and machine find their reason to truly embrace what makes them both human.

With director Denis Villeneuve at the helm, Blade Runner 2049 is easily the most ambitiously visual film of the 21^st century while the story and script by writers Hampton Fancher and Michael Green fulfill the responsibility that any good science fiction should do. Give us some answers but promote a lot more questions.

Yeah, we’ll be the first to admit that at a run time of 164 minutes, Blade Runner 2049 runs a touch heavy but it still doesn’t waste a single frame. With Villeneuve at the helm, this future is the perfect blend of dystopian and pure stunning beauty wrapped up some stunning sound design and brilliant cinematographer that we can only hope will net the great Roger Deakins his very first Academy Award. From a visual and auditory standpoint, this film is pretty much the perfect marriage of ever single element that makes the art of cinema something truly to behold.

On the home system or on a screen several stories tall, it is simply an epic piece of art, and while the material does have some bloated moments, this is a spectacle movie that is going for something more and actually wants to be insightful and thoughtful while providing some painstakingly detailed spectacle. Everyone involved in this, has embraced the tone and purpose of the material.

Ryan Gosling taking reigns as ‘K’ channels a younger Harrison Ford but with empathy as we see this being evolve before our very eyes. Sure he’s the next generation of replicant, who obeys and serves a function but he’s also one side of the coin. These beings are evolving and understanding for better or for worse the nature of their burgeoning free will and in a world that revolves and leans on these beings, free will could tear it all apart. Harrison Ford plays it great as Deckard who is thrust back into the spotlight of a discussion that began all those years ago; having him there really closes the circle and provides a sense of completion to the narrative. In spite of all the debate that the story can spark, we needed Ford’s Deckard to get some sense of conclusion and he does here. The likes of Ana De Armas and Sylvia Hoeks provide some compellingly strong female’s to play off of and Jared Leto can play it vague and oddly unnecessarily omnipotent with the best of them.

Obviously the picture and sound quality on this Blu-Ray release are second to none, there are a myriad of special features that do a deep dive into the world of Blade Runner 2049 that are just as vital to the experience as the film is.

If anything; everything about Blade Runner 2049 actually serves as a reminder that the original wasn’t necessarily beloved at first glance and any really good piece of science fiction is really comparable to a fine wine. It needs to be given the time and the opportunity to breathe on multiple viewings to become the truly epic piece of cinema that it is meant to be.