Blade Runner 2049

In the year 2049, replicants – artificially created, deceptively real-looking people – are integrated into everyday life without any further problems. Resistances, as we still knew them from old models, are a thing of the past. However, a few remnants are still out in the wild. Finding them and rendering them harmless is the task of the special unit “Blade Runner”. One day, when K ( Ryan Gosling ) is on the road on behalf of his boss, Lieutenant Joshi ( Robin Wright ), he makes a discovery that was previously considered impossible: Apparently, a replicant had managed to conceive offspring. For Joshi, it is clear that no one must learn about it, so as not to endanger public order. The industrialist Niander Wallace (However, Jared Leto, who is responsible for producing replicants, doesn’t plan on letting this discovery slip away, so he sends his loyal subordinate Luv ( Sylvia Hoeks ) to follow.

After the last few years, it’s such a thing with the sequels or reboots of long-ago cult titles. Occasionally one can be happy about the result. But for every positive example like Creed – Rocky’s Legacy or Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, there are half a dozen non-starters that make your heart bleed. And so it was with a mixture of hope and fear that Blade Runner 2049 looked forward to. Hope, because this is directed by Denis Villeneuve, who since Prisoners (2013) has had an incredible run. Hardly anyone currently manages the balancing act between mainstream and art houses as he does.

In fact, “Blade Runner 2049” is one of the most worth-seeing science fiction works of recent years. The themes of the cult classic have been taken up and carefully refined, and the emotional component has also been strengthened. All in all, this doesn’t offer much that is new, some things are hasty and straightforward despite a proud running time of over two and a half hours. Atmospherically and visually, the melancholy excursion into a gloomy future is so outstanding that one or the other lack of content is degraded to a minor matter.

• Blade Runner 2049