Blade Runner 2049

[Alex]

First off I want to say SPOILERS AHEAD. I feel like this is a really difficult film to discuss without spoilers.

I absolutely adored this film, but it did have it's flaws. Regardless I think it's a worthy sequel to the original, and took some of the themes from the book, which weren't utilised previously.

Since you listed some discussion points, I'll follow with some agreements or counterpoints.

- An underground band of replicants

This kind of bothered me too. I liked the idea of the this group, but they weren't necessary to the film in anyway really, and felt shoehorned in for that single scene. Obviously, as a plot device, they were there to inform K, and the audience, that he's not the child and is really just another Replicant. This runs with the theme of K searching for his soul, but wasn't put together well as a scene.

How did Deckard and Rachel make a baby?

We don't know this, Wallace doesn't know this, K doesn't know this. Tyrell knew this and that's it. I kind of like this being kept in mystery, follows the ambiguity of Deckard being a human or a Replicant.

Visually there's a lot to take in with this film

I found the film to be absolutely beautiful, and the on-going theme of "Man vs Nature" was represented heavily in the visuals throughout the film, especially with it all culminating in the fight scene in the water at the end.

I think the Wallace building was designed specifically to mirror the Tyrell building. The inside of the Tyrell building felt like it was only there to serve the purpose. Tyrell's room wasn't overly high-tech and there was the scene of him playing chess there. Tyrell was a refined man, he kept everything close to his chest and didn't let an ego show. Wallace is the complete opposite, his work is to benefit himself, he wants to be this god creator of an entire Replicant race. This is shown in his building, with everything looking completely over the top and the most high-tech it can be. The room with the water and the fish was built entirely to be stunning from a visual point of view, the exact opposite of the rooms Deckard sees of the Tyrell building in the original film.

The soundtrack was probably good, but the theatre had it cranked so god damned loud that the industrial groaning actually had me covering my ears. Am I getting old?

There was definitely a huge contrast between volumes in the soundtrack. The quiet scenes were very quiet, which made the rising parts of the soundtrack seem a lot louder. In my opinion it worked, but I can see the complaint.

Joi

The main thing I took from K and Joi's relationship is that, to K, it was real. In reality he was in love with a hologram programmed to appeal to him in that way. It seems like he's fallen into this extremely easily, and Joi is one of the main things that helps keep him living the monotonous live we see him living, it may even be part of what helps him pass the baseline test everyday. When she was destroyed, we weren't supposed to feel anything towards her, but to sympathise with K. It also symbolises his, once again, monotonous lifestyle, being torn apart and destroyed. The interaction between the Joi commercial and K really enforces the fact that he *doesn't* have a soul, and he's not special. These are the two things he spends the whole film searching for, and eventually achieves when he brings Deckard back to his daughter.

I apologise for the messy structure of this post, but I wanted to provide a discussion to the points which you offered.

 

[Telemachus]

Thanks for the reply. Been thinking about this movie a bit since seeing it, in conjunction with some of your points.

On reflection, the underground gang seems even more pointless. During the film I thought we were going to see Officer K not only try and come to grips with being the child, but that his father was still alive and he might meet him. It might have provided some development, some drama, and probably some humour for K to eventually confess that he believed this to be the case, only to be informed Deckard had most certainly begotten a daughter. Deckard might have felt less pointless in this way.

I suppose it's probably best that the reproduction remained a secret. It might have led to some kind of midichlorian explanation, and nobody wants that. Deckard is a replicant though. It was ambiguous in the first film, heavily implied in the director's cut, and confirmed by Ridley Scott point blank in an interview many years later.

The room with the water and the fish was built entirely to be stunning from a visual point of view, the exact opposite of the rooms Deckard sees of the Tyrell building in the original film.

I think we didn't see enough of Wallace, and his behaviour was too cartoony and villainy for me to have thought about it seriously. But looking back, yeah, housing an aspiring god and his progeny, I can see how a building like that may have come about.

As for Joi, I've been thinking that as the protagonist, K is the character the audience most identifies with. While in the beginning he is supremely stoic, we obviously like him since he's generally the most reasonable, emotional (eventually), and wronged character as well. Given that, if we see K as a foil for the general population it leads me to think down a couple of tracks.

First, Joi is a fake woman, purchased and programmed to adore him. It's pretty fucked up, but additionally I think you may be correct in that it helps him keep his baseline tests under control. (I don't recall if Joi was provided to him by the police or Wallace, nor if the film specifically mentions or implies this function). K being the newer model replicant, he is supposed to be the latest and greatest: The most stoic, the least feeling, the most easily satisfied, the most thoughtless consumer (Joi, her tech, her DLC, her extra features, her ability to locate a prostitute who can literally be fucked without having to see her face. Was that in the design specs?!). K is like a government's wet-dream citizen.

And as you said, K is clearly fully attached to her. Maybe it might've been interesting to see him, as his humanity comes to the fore and as he searches for this soul, grow farther from the false comfort of his video game girlfriend and seek out another truly sentient being. Perhaps that's part of what his search for Deckard meant, and Joi was crushed too soon for there to be a... uh... "break-up."

We could also look at it as a condemnation, a cruel look at a cynic's view of modern life. The modern male in particular, as an emotionless, unfeeling automaton who looks to his Joi (Or porn or tinder or hentai waifu) for his companionship, and who happily throws away his cash and time for distraction. When not engaged in distraction, he dutifully completes his job whether he likes it or not.

I still liked the film on the whole. As time goes by, I'm sure I'll find some reviews and critiques to round out a better understanding of what the film was going for and whether it achieved those ends.

And thanks for the reply!