Blade Runner 2049 falls short in restoring former glory

On Oct. 6, “Blade Runner 2049”, the unexpected sequel to the 35 year old sci-fi classic, arrived in theaters. The movie starred Ryan Gosling, as the replicant blade runner named K, and Harrison Ford, returning to play protagonist, Rick Deckard, from Blade Runner (1982). It spelled the return of a unique world that warned a generation about the perils of abusing our resources and inspired new technology.Blade Runner 2049 had big visual and narrative shoes to fill. In the former, it was more than compensated, but in the latter, I found it lacking. The movie wasted time introducing plot lines that were irrelevant, disappointing or took away from the main story. Some of Officer K’s detours made no sense and stretched my suspension of belief very thin. The film had its good and bad moments, but overall, the plot was not as solid throughout as the first film.Just a warning for those who are going to see it: this movie is a hard R for a reason. There’s nudity in almost every other scene and it is just as violently graphic as the first Blade Runner.One of the movie’s strong points was its incredible visuals. Blade Runner 2049 was bursting with color and unique design. The red-orange sands of radioactive Las Vegas, the shimmering gold and black rooms and halls of Wallace Corporation and the startling cubic ravines of deep LA streets from above flat-topped buildings were at times more interesting than what Officer K was doing. I wish that the movie could have taken the audience into the streets and explored more. The costumes were the same fun “future grunge” as in Blade Runner with some new trends. Blade Runner 2049, like its predecessor, had interesting villains. Niander Wallace, played by Jared Leto, filled a similar role to Eldon Tyrell in being the owner of a company with a monopoly on replicant creation. He quickly proved himself to be a man with a god-complex and no qualms about killing whoever stood in his way. The replicant Luv, played by Sylvia Hoeks, showed the audience the true extent of Nexus 8 (the new replicant model) obedience. She consistently seems displeased or disturbed with the orders she receives from Wallace, such as being forced to fight or kill. Despite their character’s potential, Wallace and Luv sometimes felt like afterthoughts written into the story. The movie couldn’t seem to decide who was its most important antagonist.Additionally starring in Blade Runner 2049 was Ana de Armas, who played Officer K’s holographic girlfriend, Joi. She, throughout the movie, lived up to the motto “more human than human” by bringing out the personal side of K. Joi nicknamed him Joe, which was not as impactful as the writers intended, but the sentiment was there. Overall, the film had features that, isolated, were incredibly interesting and unique, but when put together seemed messy and chaotic. The original Blade Runner handled uncommon pacing well, this movie did not. It became too tedious for me to keep track of every plot line K was following.