Blade Runner 2049

Do androids dream of electric sheep? Search me, but obviously they get prenatal advice from Tobor the Great! The press screening for this movie was the first time I’ve ever been tempted to wear a mask to see a movie and apply for protective services in order to write a review! Warner Bros. found it necessary to instruct those of us in the press to deny that we’d even attended the advanced screening and suggested we avoid revealing the various cameos (although Edward James Olmos is clearly visible in the latest trailer), not to mention who is and who is not a replicant (though after seeing the film I’ve the vaguest idea), or to talk about Deckard or Rachael, and to generally glaze over the plot – so figure it out for yourself!! Here’s a one sentence summation: Officer KD6.3-7 (Ryan Gosling) is assigned to investigate the last gasp of the Tyrell Corporation’s fetishized technology, and does so without getting swallowed by a whale! However, despite its façade being awash in redundancy, this film is one long pause after another, full of thinly veiled versions of already familiar characters. And this time around the innovations are as mundane as a detachable sunroof that also serves as a drone camera and a highly calibrated eminator that permits a holographic love interest to move freely about like the emergency medical avatar on Star Trek: Voyager some fifteen years ago! Both the Philip K. Dick book and Ridley Scott’s film were about the future; this movie seems to be set in the waning hours of last weekend!

[R]