The long overdue _Blade Runner_ thread

Songs foals young lovers

new yoke, new yoke

what is this horse stuff? isn't it a unicorn?

This is about the wooden toy horse in the implanted memory from blade runner 2049 (which has a date carved into it), not the implanted unicorn dream from the original

ok, ive forgotten the sequel already.

this is a good movie

TSA agent at the airport recognizes my old Blade Runner shirt as I go through security, and starts jokingly administering a Voight-Kampff test

I have NO IDEA what he’s doing & completely go along with it

Living in a hyper pop-culture-savvy police state is really weird yall

— Jesse Holden (@scumbly) February 18, 2018

I get nervous any time a TSA agent says anything besides "move along, sir"

last time i visited the states my passport was about to expire and the guy looked at the picture (hair, clean-shaven, slim-ish) and then at me now (shaved head, beard, 10 years' worth of depression etched under my eyes) and gave me shit about having aged horribly

i'd have preferred a voight-kampff test tbh

last time I flew, my flight was pushed from later afternoon to the following morning, and I only had a few hours of sleep. I turned around after putting my backpack on not realizing the top wasn't latched, and some stuff flew out and hit the TSA guy. I was incredibly apologetic.

now, however, it's going to be a struggle not to make jokes referencing Get Out when I go through TSA

finally saw this and came away very impressed. it's total eye candy throughout and the very good music by Hans Zimmer(!) was unobtrusive(!!) though i did notice a foghorn blare over the end credits. beyond that, i thought the story was pretty straightforward but effective; the character arc for K was quite good and unexpectedly moving in places. and Gosling's tendency for flat affect was put to very good use here.

I was a little concerned there'd be more reliance on easy familiarity put to no actual use when Edward James Olmos popped up, but it was the only slightly sore thumb bit. It lasted less than a minute, so not really a big deal. I guess it did have some use as a way to introduce Deckard into the plot without revealing him yet. It must have been almost two hours into the film before he arrives.

There was shockingly little Leto content and what was there was effective. But everyone else in the film is better, mostly. Thought Hoeks was great; her moments of fury were outstanding, and I think her role as an assassin for Wallace is a bit of a red herring; she's kind of the Batty here, going independent and seeking out answers for herself. That was my read, at least. I did like how, uh, good she was at walking into LAPD HQ and stealing evidence and murdering cops. Or maybe LAPD is still corrupt and full of holes in 2049.

Fancher and Villeneuve were willing to make this very long and slow, which I was happy with. I guess I was most impressed that Fancher--who has hardly done anything since the original beyond writing a couple mostly forgotten films and directing one of them--was able to return to the fold with a sequel that actually works at this level.

I disagree re: Leto - way too much time wasted on him to ultimately no end, he has almost no purpose at all other than to be a creepy guy who tries to creep you out and fails, just like his role in Suicide Squad, actually

way too much time wasted on him

literally 10-15 minutes

he wasn't awful

or rather his obnoxious method ott-ness fit the character for once

well he certainly was hateable i'll give him that

Nah, he was hateable and awful.

feel like when he's supposed to be playing a character that's pretentious, he comes off as try-hard instead

I found him tedious and embarrassing but maybe I was primed to because he is famously those things, would have to watch again

The pacing was my favourite thing about this film but I found it hard to get caught up in for some reason - again I’m up for a rewatch

I thought Leto worked bc his role was mostly to give a bit of background and motivation. Fortunately the focus of his scenes were the reactions of other characters, either Deckard or Luv. Obviously it’s hard not to imagine the role being played much better, not merely resulting in something “effective.” I wanted to say a middle aged actor would have been better but then again the guy is 46 years old. So maybe a guy who looks middle-aged.

All that aside I thought he was okay.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrZ9D56g_dW/

At least in the 2019 of Blade Runner the president of the US isn't Trump.

The lack of any sense of formal political structure we know of is part of the strange appeal of the film, I'd say. The sole authority appears to be the police, making it more Judge Dredd than anything else.

My husband and I went to Blade Runner 2049 this past weekend at Seattle’s wonderful Majestic Bay Theater. I am a big fan of the original Blade Runner thus the bar was very, very high for 2049. IMHO, Blade Runner 2049 was too frenetic, too convoluted and the only characters I really cared much about was Rick Deckard (the still handsome and wiley Harrison Ford) and his big ass shaggy mongrel doggie. I shed a tear when the doggie is shown peering out of a shattered building, wagging his tail just a bit, wondering where his human went. I’m tearing up now just remembering that scene.

One thing I found interesting throughout the movie was the relatively smallish breasts of all of the female characters. Hardly any cleavage at all – a real change for Hollywood. K’s (played by a deliciously disheveled Ryan Gosling) made-to-order AI concubine Joi (Anade Armas) and her human side kick, Mariette (Mackenzie Davis) with whom she mind and body melds, were both small chested. The LAPD’s Madame played by the ever wonderful Robin Wright was lean and mean and small chested. The still-under-construction and just “born” female replicants would all measure into an A or B cup bra. Even the gigantic virtual reality pleasure girl with the pastel hair was small breasted. The only bouncing breasts seen in the movie was in the cocktail lounge hologram dancing girls of the distant past. They contrasted nicely with Deckard and K beating the bejesus out of each other.

So maybe this return to a natural sized breast will be the next not-so-big thing for the ever scrutinized female figure?

Thanks for reading and if you haven’t seen the original Bland Runner, you are missing out on a great movie

I watched C-cups glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.

https://gifer.com/en/embed/FZb

we need a Voight-Kampff test for boobs, imho

my mother? let me tell you about my mother!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAQimMgUYAAsG4j?format=jpg&name=small

RIP

RIP

Anyone in the Bay Area: previously announced screening that happens at the Alamo Drafthouse on Monday Aug. 19th. A few tickets left:

https://drafthouse.com/sf/tickets/big-screen-science-blade-runner-the-final-cut/0801/31597/showtimes

caught 2049 again, not sure what edit but at least one scene missing (leto massacres investigating auditor types)

holds up better once you know whether or not gosling is our android messiah tbh

also not sure if i had settled it in my head before watching, but i think it might leave the deckard replicant question still open.......?

My internet is down but I have a mad decent 8 gb rip on my laptop, may have to revisit this crap. the night city flying scenes are the highlight for me

also not sure if i had settled it in my head before watching, but i think it might leave the deckard replicant question still open.......?

I really, really appreciated that the movie left it open.

I don’t know what the consensus is on 2049, BR heads seem split on whether it’s great or a bummer.

I still think it’s dope. Honestly like it more with each viewing. Basically how I felt about the original.

caught 2049 again, not sure what edit but at least one scene missing (leto massacres investigating auditor types)

Likes this on release & been meaning to rewatch it - are there different cuts floating around or something?

This sucked, praise itt is baffling

Counterpoint: it did not suck.

otherwise swimming in tits

Loved Dave Bautista adjusting his tiny glasses. Also, Harrison Ford throwing punches like he’s holding bowling balls in his hands. The sound of the gunshots was great too, it sounded like cannon fire.

otherwise swimming in tits

quietly proud of this, apart from quietly.

/also not sure if i had settled it in my head before watching, but i think it might leave the deckard replicant question still open.......?/

I really, really appreciated that the movie left it open.

if anything the movie is a 164-minute riposte to the idea that that question ever needed answering in the first place

This was great, perhaps even more compelling than the original. Catching it on the silver screen when it came out likely helped.

otm

I complained to a friend that it was hollow spectacle with no substance, he said that's exactly why he liked it.

Counterpoint - it was really terrible, but also I would like to rewatch it - some stupidly long movies can be better appreciated as meditative when I can stop the viewing for a piss.

it’s an elegant extension of the themes of the first film which examines philip k dick’s obsession with what it means to be human from a couple of interesting new angles

i dunno what else anyone could want from it tbh

The artificiality of all created life, especially the paradox of a freely autonomous being set in motion like clockwork by a Deus absconditus-type figure that happens to be 'human', further destabilizing this very category in the process… I fail to see how it lacks substance.

it’s all substance! it’s a really clever script!

The artificiality of all created life, especially the paradox of a freely autonomous being set in motion like clockwork by a Deus absconditus-type figure that happens to be 'human', further destabilizing this very category in the process

This fog looks solid but when I try to grasp it it just slips through my fingers.