Blade Runner 2049 is a surprising cinematic expertise that’s simple to admire, if not precisely love. Director Denis Villeneuve, who helmed final yr’s Oscar-nominated mindbender Arrival, ably takes the reins from Ridley Scott (an government producer right here) and expands on the concepts and questions raised in Scott’s 1982 original: What does it imply to be human? And is being human any higher than being a human-like robotic who’s productive and considerate, and has emotions, needs, and ambitions identical to anybody else?

At the tip of Blade Runner, viewers have been left questioning if LAPD cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), whose job as a blade runner was to “retire” rogue replicants, was a replicant himself, particularly after he fell in love with one. Now, 30 years later, Deckard is lacking, and there’s a brand new blade runner in smog-shrouded and snowy Los Angeles. He goes by Okay (Ryan Gosling), and because the film opens he lands his flying Peugeot on a small California protein farm. He’s there to retire replicant Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista), however simply earlier than he’s ready to take action, Morton utters, “You’ve never seen a miracle.” It looks like a throwaway line on the time, but it surely’s one that may echo all through the story. In reality, the miracle Morton refers to may break the world, in line with Okay’s boss, Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright, robust and terrific), and begin an unprecedented warfare. Okay’s job? Find out what or who this so-called miracle is and destroy it.

Okay’s investigation, which takes him from the seedy streets of L.A. to an enormous and massively populated rubbish dump that after was San Diego to an eerily desolate Las Vegas, unfolds at a sluggish, deliberate tempo, very like the unique movie. But at 163 minutes, 2049 is a bit overlong and would have benefited from extra even handed modifying. While Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins regularly fill the display screen with one jaw-dropping picture after one other, after some time one needs the pair had embraced a extra minimalistic, less-is-more inventive strategy. The film isn’t boring, however the story’s reasonably slight central thriller doesn’t warrant such an extreme working time. 2049 does delve deeper into the humanist questions it poses than its predecessor, however one needs it had explored these themes even additional. The filmmakers are extra content material to razzle-dazzle us with the astonishing dystopian world they’ve created, reasonably than plunge headlong into critical points concerning synthetic intelligence, slavery, intercourse, private identification, and the character of God. Steven Spielberg’s A.I., Spike Jonze’s Her, and Scott’s latest Alien: Covenant all take a deeper, extra thorough dive into these points than Blade Runner 2049.

That mentioned, 2049 is pure cinema and a must-see for critical moviegoers. It’s additionally a deal with to see Ford reprise his Blade Runner function after 35 years. Unfortunately, he doesn’t present up till very late within the movie, however his look is well worth the wait; when Deckard emerges, the story actually ignites and shifts into a better gear. Gosling can be good in a reined-in, subdued efficiency, as is Jared Leto, as A.I. pioneer Niander Wallace, who serves because the film’s resident unhealthy man. Wallace needs the “miracle” for himself and can kill to get it. Sylvia Hoeks is genuinely scary as Wallace’s lethal replicant assistant; and Ana de Armas, as Okay’s live-in companion Joi, is heartbreaking. She seems to be probably the most human of anybody, although she’s a hologram.

At one level, Lt. Joshi tells Okay that “we’re all just looking out for something real.” And that’s in the end what Blade Runner 2049 is about: Human connection in a world the place expertise, as an alternative of bringing us nearer collectively, has solely remoted us additional. The film units itself up properly for a sequel, and right here’s hoping the following movie, if there’s one, burrows deeper into the thorny “A.I. vs. humanity” points solely touched upon right here. And that we don’t have to attend one other 35 years to see it.