The long overdue _Blade Runner_ thread

ah yes

i was clutching my own hand too tightly to think v clearly about anything at that point

Them leaving k there alive is a major misstep plotwise tho

The "left for dead guy comes back to get revenge" trope is classic fuiud

http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/blade-runner-2049-review-1202576220/#!:

As it happens, in both tone and style, the new film owes more to slow-cinema maestro Andrei Tarkovsky than it does to Scott’s revolutionary cyberpunk sensibility.

This was much more Lopushansky than Tarkovsky. All those Russians don't look alike, haha.

Really enjoyed this, whatever its influences!

Did they think K was dead? He didn't look dead. I noticed that as a plot misstep too.

maybe luv didn’t kill him because she was secretly in luv with him

I liked how the replicant army entered the room in the middle of the leader's speech. They were just waiting in the hall for their cue.

I just think they didn’t really give a shit about him and thought him low status enough to not be worth their time

I think that's right, but it's a misstep in that it makes for a less satisfying story than if the bad guys were smart and careful.

never underestimate hubris

I am still wondering... if their goal in tracking K is so he'll lead them to Deckard, who is a vitally important piece of equipment who holds the mystery of replicant childbirth... why do they fire a missile at him as soon as they locate him? This seems like a pretty stupid way to catch him, especially since K has a tracking device in his pocket. JUST FOLLOW THEM.

I think that's right, but it's a misstep in that it makes for a less satisfying story than if the bad guys were smart and careful.

― jmm, Tuesday, October 17, 2017

it's only a misstep in retrospect

a simple "leave him" uttered by some faceless goon would have sufficed probs

. why do they fire a missile at him as soon as they locate him?

It looked to me like they fired the missile at their car to stop them getting away

there is some deep psychological voodoo going on about facial cgi, and directors and everyone involved with a movie apparently thinking it is good enough. when sean young shows up in this, as her younger self, it's breathtaking. she moves closer, to the middle ground. still breathtaking. is this some unused footage, melded into the new movie? what witchcraft is this?? then we move closer. she starts talking. and it's LIKE WATCHING RED DEAD REDEMPTION. clearly there are extremely high standards at work in this movie. the design, the sets, the makeup, it's all stunning. so what blinds producers and directors to this? grand moff tarkin in rogue one was just the same way. and even leia to an extent - they were smart enough to hold the close shot on her for just a second or two but it was enough to feel the plasticky vibe, the gray film over the teeth, the curiously rigid mouth. just bizarre. (it's not so different maybe from the collective delusion that plastic surgery on the lips and chin etc actually makes hollywood actors look better rather than clownish losers)

like there has to be this deep, deep desire to unsee or look past the deficiencies of the representation, deficiencies which are immediately apparent to anyone not involved in the production

Whether the uncanny valley can be crossed poses an interesting challenge.

I find the CGI in the Star Wars prequels much worse. No surprise there but it's just stuff like robots and scenery; there's a curious lack of scale. Not relative scale, just a sense of scale at all.

some of the look very much reminded me of manufactured landscapes, the documentary of edward burtynsky's work: ppl like salvage-ants crawling over mountains of detritus and abandoned ship-hulks

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5915c70e59cc6830f44a9d74/59627dfa44024329a4dc59e9/59627dfa03596e1794b5c2d6/1499627003167/Manufactured_Landscapes_Cover.jpg

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5915c70e59cc6830f44a9d74/59651f7ce3df28f61fda1911/59651fbd17bffc9f07d41720/1499799744898/SHB_9A_00_big.jpg

uncanny valley easier to swallow in a movie where they're bioengineering fake people

i saw it with tracer: i think our shared opinion on exit was "that was good not bad but we have QUESTIONS"

re LUV: it's a very bold commitment to style when your job that day is likely to included assassination via close-up knife and/or noggin smashed like a prawn cracker so you decide yet again to dress in STARTLING VIRGIN WHITE, well done her

her boss was plainly a complete blethering idiot and she just as plainly recognised this, hence her tremendous sinister rage at all times after the very first encounter with her (she was the best if not the only character)

actually the memories woman was good too, i liked the super-weird way she brushed away her tears

yes!! the first time she did it i thought "the director has told her she must brush away some tears but she hates him so she's doing it in the most perfunctory way possible" basically writing my own making-of fan-fic in my head while the movie is going on (possibly why i missed so many plot points)

am i right that LUV and WALLACE both are pining for the secret of babby-forming

clones

lol sorry i meant that to be strikethrough not blockquote

love those scraggled detritus landscape photos mark, i was keen to see them after having them described to me

the burtynsky documentary is def worth checking out: the book collection suffers a bit from the fact the photos work best in galleries, really really large; the shipbreaking location is chittagong beach in bangladesh

i also liked the sigh of "fuck you then you idiot" the giant naked sex-vid bot gave when jared wasn't enticed

Totally agree with Tracer re: the face-masking CGI, except that I'd say it bothered me much, much less in this than in Rogue One, presumably because it was meant to be a not-that-accurate copy anyway. I hope there's a out-take where Ford says "Rachel has green eyes. And doesn't talk like she's in Red Dead Redemption."

the good thing abt the little clips of the earlier film is that it reminded you how terrible harrison ford and sean young were as a "couple with chemistry"

(or at all: only ANOTHER BOT could have fallen for rachel QED, and anyway harrison ford is always terrible, he is also in fact a replicant in witness, the mosquito coast etc)

harrison ford is always terrible

he's a movie star, he doesn't have to be a good actor

tbf he is ok in anything where low-key clowning and punchy brawn are his attributes (= indy movies, star wars) (i just never watch moves like that)

he has a really weird and graceless style of running and jumping

he is very old (and a robot)

they recalled the model for a reason

actually you know where's he's really great is working girl - v charming and relaxed, and he doesn't wave his index finger in righteous indignation at anyone iirc

he's always run like he's carrying a 100lb pack tho, even in the indy days

Limmy said something a few weeks ago about Harrison Ford being unable to run - he looks like he is but he actually isn't. He does the same thing in Return of the Jedi when he's running away from the shield generator on Endor.

blade galumpher

there are so many TV shows that burrow deep into directions only hinted at here - ORPHAN BLACK for the "clones having babies" angle, HUMANS for the "are robots human, or at least human enough to hate us" angle

all of them HINT at a robot/clone/replicant revolution but none of them actually GET ON with it. i want to see the film where freysa (sp?) and luv realize they have a common enemy

http://www.antarcticajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/339_skynet-5-things-you-didnt-know_flash.jpg

just once i wish -- when the seeker arrives unexpectedly at the hideout of the sought -- that the latter is not playing the spotify 3000 "well known classy music for guests you only just met" selection, and kicking back with stuff he prefers to play when on his own and uninterrupted, like carter the unstoppable sex machine or asia or (most likely) dave matthews

what exactly was skynet's plan once humans were wiped out btw? just a bunch of gleaming metal endoskeletons sitting around shooting the shit in the ruins of humans of civilisation for eternity?

or the sought is just cranking their hog in front of redtube or whatever, answers the door all flustered with a faint patina of perspiration on their brow and a stray tissue sticking out of their zipper xp

he's a robot

but in general, yes

actually this makes me think of something that popped into mind of when LUV was tussling with K at terrific length at the seaside: what happens when you kick a replicant in the nuts?

she never bothered doing this tho it was clearly very in her skillset to do so, so presumably nothing at all (clearly she'd shatter a mere human pelvis)

what happens when you kick a replicant in the nuts?

Pretty sure that was the working title of PKD's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

I really liked this. I feel like this is one of the first movies to successfully challenge prestige sci-fi TV in breadth and scope. The acts really felt like separate episodes (in a good way). I did feel like there was about 10 minutes that could have been cut here and there (small things like Deckard in the water calling out "joe!" for 20 seconds), but the overall pacing was good while still allowing a lot of both space and detail.

Also, the world of '2049' has a much stronger PKD vibe - especially when it seemed under-populated (as someone mentioned above).

The part that I felt could have been severely cut was the entire San Diego sequence. It really seemed like a Walking Dead rip off and when they revealed the Morgan actor it was an eye-roller.

The only other thing i didn't like was the brightness of K's apartment and the LAPD HQ. Way too fluorescent tube color temp.

And I really liked the implication mentioned above that this future was a continuation of the world of the first film ("Soviet Happy" etc). That was also very PKD-esque touch.

many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese