First Take: Blade Runner 2049- it’s perfect.

Spoiler free as usual. Because frankly that would ruin everything.

SYNOPSIS: A young blade runner’s discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who’s been missing for thirty years.

Deep breath everyone, here we go with a big one. Years in the making, the long awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic brings expectations so high that anything under 2 hours would be a disappointment. And I am super proud to report that Denis Villenueve has actually made the dream sequel.

Clocking in at a gargantuan 2 hours 43 minutes, it may drag at points, but Villenueve has made a film that is a perfect companion piece to the original, and the talent behind it are just as good- with a script from Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, the same flair and originality of the first film are totally there, with characters and plotlines linked between the two wrapped up nicely. The cinematography from Roger Deakins should win him that long awaited Oscar, as it is a sight to behold in 4K, and combined with a very Vangelis-influenced score from Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch (the men behind the majority of Dunkirk’s score), the look and feel of Los Angeles 30 years after the events of the first film is spot on.

Performance wise, I don’t know where to begin. Ryan Gosling is a very neat lead, and when he eventually gets paired with Harrison Ford, it’s a huge moment in itself. The supporting cast are great too, with Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista and Sylvia Loeks putting in some good work, but at the end of the day, to see a Hollywood studio give Denis Villenueve $150million to make a Blade Runner sequel in the way he wanted to makes me proud as a film fan. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but this may be the most important blockbuster of the decade.

THE VERDICT

Absolute perfection in film form, Blade Runner 2049 is a film that just honours the legacy of the original so damn well. If you haven’t seen the first film, see that first, then see 2049- you’ll understand it all so much more. But even as a standalone film, there’s not much to fault.

RATING: 5/5