I saw Blade Runner in 1982 at the Liberty Theater in Lewiston, Idaho. (Apparently, there weren’t that many of us who bought tickets to the original, since it grossed only $27.5 million.) It mesmerized me then; it remains one of my favorite motion pictures of all time. So it was with some trepidation that the missus and I took out a small loan to pay for a pair of tickets to an IMAX showing of Blade Runner 2049 over the weekend. I mean, let’s be honest: Most sequels are terrible. And a sequel released 35 years after the original? Gotta be a cash grab playing on audience nostalgia.
I hate to admit it, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Visual feast, cautionary tale, morality play, character study, pop art, plot-driven action flick: Blade Runner 2049 is all that and more. I’ll need to see it again to confirm my suspicions, but I think it might actually be better than the original. For reals.
This is a great film. You need to see it. Right now.
