For me, like many sci-fi fans I imagine, the original Blade Runner is one of those films as near to perfect as we can hope for... so I wasn't that sure it really needed a sequel.
After Denis Villeneuve's almost three-hour magnum opus had washed over me I was still wasn't wholly convinced that we needed a Blade Runner sequel, but Blade Runner 2049 is still a mighty impressive piece of work.
While it may lack the finesse and subtlety of the original, it has an interesting and challenging story to tell, woven around the spine of a techno-noir thriller.
Ryan Gosling stars as K, a replicant blade runner whose job is to 'retire' rogue replicants (artificial life forms created as a 'slave' class to do the jobs humans didn't want to or couldn't do).
What should have been a routine case leads K to discover a hidden box, which contains clues to a shocking revelation that will "break the world".
Soon, he is following a trail of breadcrumbs, pursued by shady forces, and on the hunt for long-vanished blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and maybe answers to questions he has about his own creation.
Blade Runner 2049 does an amazing job of extrapolating forward 30 years the technology we were shown in the first movie, rather than simply splicing in whatever shiny effects the computers of 2018 can create, compared to the film-making tools of 1982.
This allows for creative use of holographic technology (such as K's beautiful 'girlfriend' Joi, played by Ana de Armas, and cameo appearances from Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and Frank Sinatra) while still relying on print photography to play a major role.
Villeneuve's mastery of Hampton Fancher and Michael Green's smart screenplay means the 164 minute film never drags; nothing feels like padding, even when we are simply revelling in the mise-en-scene (which is almost as beautiful as the original, but not quite) and cyberpunk atmosphere rather than cracking on with solving the mystery.
Had this, somehow, been a standalone movie, it would have been churlish to pick holes in its splendour, but Blade Runner 2049 will always be compared to its predecessor and always comes up that tiniest smidgen short (none of the villains, for instance, are as rounded and interesting as Roy Batty; there are no speeches quite as magnificent as "tears in rain" etc).
That said, aided no doubt by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch's soundtrack that strikingly evokes Vangelis along with plenty of visual nods to the original, Blade Runner 2049 is an amazingly absorbing film that does a damn fine job of entertaining its audience.
