Staring at Glowing Rectangles: February 2018

Fanfic. That's how I got myself to watch this. Its not Blade Runner 2. There is no Blade Runner 2. There can be no Blade Runner 2. Having said that, it was worth watching, and I have no regrets, nor is any memory of Blade Runner sullied in any way.

First impression is that its not finished. There's 2.5 hours of content, of which at least an hour could be cut. I could tell that even as I was watching, but I still couldn't take my eyes off the screen the entire way through (with two intermissions).

I watched Sicario a few months ago, by the same director, and as I predicted this would be a pretty movie, with some weird background music choices, and some interesting camera angles. I don't think Sicario was as overly long as this one, so I wasn't expecting that part. Knowing in advance about the long run time is why I didn't want to go see this in the theater in the first place. Some movies can justify that kind of length but most do not. I'm not taking that risk, especially when I can have the Blue-Ray a few months later. I did have to avoid a lot of spoilers, but it wasn't that hard.

Not that there's much to spoil. From here on its all about nitpicking over the details, so I'll just summarize that this movie is worth watching once if you're any kind of sci-fi fan, but that's about it.

There are many points I need to go over, and I wouldn't bother unless I at least liked the movie. Blade Runner 2049 showed potential at being more, but its almost as if they are waiting for their own director's cut to get the final edit right.

I really liked that the protagonist is revealed to be a replicant right away. Side-stepping the endless conjecture about whether the protagonist is a replicant or not, we're just starting out with no mystery about it. I think that's more interesting, so I was a little tired when later on he has to wonder if he's a real boy. More about that later.

It makes nothing but sense that after 30 years they've got much more stable replicants, so much so that they can work openly in society and nobody really cares (just some teasing and racism... or whatever it should be called in this case...). So why are they still hunting the old models down? Especially if they are living the life of a hermit farmer way outside society? I know its for exposition, and to get the story started, but it makes for a rough start.

It seemed very sloppy that at first the Nexus 8 didn't run, and didn't try to fight, and only until well into the exposition does he suddenly decide to sneak attack his obvious bounty hunter. As if it just occurred to him now to use violence, and with little thought about the likelihood of success in the short or long term. And even if he does kill this particular blade runner, he becomes a fugitive on the run, and loses his hermit lifestyle. It would have been more powerful storywise for him to say I'm not coming with you, and making a more reasoned or impassioned plea that, of course, doesn't stop the blade running in progress, but does get Agent K, (or Joe, or whatever his name is) started down his existential search all that much sooner in the story.

I also really like that our pets have their own pets. It's a great new dimension in the story of what replicants and humans mean to each other to then throw artificial intelligences into the mix. But the movies spends way too much time on this in unproductive ways, especially once he buys her a holo-emitter. Well, not quite a holo-emitter, she still needs to hire a sex surrogate. Still, an interesting girlfriend for a replicant, and I guess we needed someone the protagonist cares about to get killed by the bad guys, to show just how bad they are.

Speaking of the bad guys demonstrating their credentials, there's not much worse than Wallace decanting a brand new life, just to kill it on its zeroth birthday right in front of his #1, who happens to be a replicant too, after an overly long and crazy speech. At this point you have quite a bit of empathy for the bosses' dragon, as you have no idea yet how crudely she will behave later while getting his crazy dirty work done. But as bad as she is, she's just doing her job, the boss is just gross.

I understand he's frustrated that he can't figure out how to make a replicant that can reproduce, but there's no need to make your test subjects suffer through the boot-up procedure, and then just kill them slowly. You could just terminate the failures while they're still in their birth sack (or whatever that artificial womb was). Still, it gets the job done showing the boss is crazy and driven. But why does he need replicants that reproduce? You already own the factory, why put yourself out of business. Is it just to prove that he was better than Tyrell and could create a synthetic human that can really do everything humans do, and still be subservient to humanity? Maybe I missed something but his motivation is unclear.

How does Wallace's assistant (I must have missed her name) walk in and out of the LAPD building at will, murdering the coroner and stealing evidence, and returning later to kill Madam? There should be cameras everywhere, especially at sensitive locations, and she just walks in and out killing people and taking stuff at will. It is also unrealistic that the world's top businessman would have to resort to anything so crude as violence to get what he wants, when good old fashioned corruption would do just fine, and with less mess. Cops found Rachel's bones? Wallace's lawyers swoop in and seize valuable corporate assets. Madam causing trouble? A word to the top officials of the state or city (surely he's got both on speed dial) and her investigation gets shut down.

The whole Joe sub plot of thinking he was the first human-replicant hybrid... well, depending on the parents would that make him all replicant, or half-human? Even though Deckard is substantially present in this movie, I don't think they ever settle the matter. Which is fine, that was kind the point I took away from the first movie. But poor Joe has to go through the ringer, wondering if his implanted memories were real time memories, only to find his memories belong to the real hybrid child. Interesting while its unfolding, but at the end you just feel bad for him, and bad for all the time the movie wasted on it.

So thirty years ago Rachel died in childbirth; that's a fine way to whisk an inconvenient character off screen. But who are all these other replicants that showed up at the time to hide the child, so Deckard can go into hiding elsewhere, and why does he go along with it so readily? Maybe it made sense in the moment, but it just seems so arbitrary. For as much as he cared about Rachel, risking his life to leave with her, you'd think he'd at least follow up.

It takes Joe to finally deliver Deckard to his long lost daughter. Why? To blow her cover, so Wallace can get hold of the security footage and find that the fugitive blade runners have been visiting her, which can only mean that she must be... Oh never mind. If there are no security cameras in LAPD, why would there be any at Seline Institute? Apparently Seline is the only person in there, since anyone can come and go at will, or just lie on the front steps while bleeding, and nobody will pick up a phone, and no passing security drones will note it.

Every last bit of movie metaphor says Joe dies at the end. This doesn't make much sense. Joe killed Wallace's security and freed Deckard, and sustained his injuries before taking him to Seline. What's the rush? How about taking a few minutes to apply a little first aid before going on the trip, or even during the trip as it is a self driving car. Wallace will send more goons after you eventually, but for the moment you're free and can go anywhere.

That's if Joe even needs medical attention. His shirt was bloody, but he didn't seem to be bleeding at the moment. It's not like he was leaving a bloody trail as they casually walked up to the institute. The replicants of thirty years ago were fairly tough, taking lots of hits and still fighting, and the replicants of 2049 are probably even tougher. I would think you'd make your bounty hunting replicants even tougher. Joe seemed calm and collected, not like someone who would probably be staggering from a terminal abdominal injury.

I think the more interesting thing is Joe lying down because he's got nothing left. His job and career is over, he's probably a fugitive for life. His A.I. girlfriend got crushed under heel (what - no backups?). His brief notion of being the golden child has been dashed, and though he shares a memory, he's not even related. I think when Deckard comes back out he'll find him lying there contemplating his new life. Maybe Joe is sufficiently injured that he may pass out, but Deckard can probably drag him to the spinner, and take him to that group of friendly replicants so they can patch him up. Which leaves Joe alive, but still with an existential crisis. Perhaps he can join what seems to be a coming revolution.

Anyway, worth watching once, maybe when it is on Netflix I'll see it again.

2018.02.07
I really liked the new and improved Voight Kampf test. Less wheezing steampunk equipment, more rapid-fire questions, seems to do a good job of assessing base line temperament of the replicants that live and work amongst humans, which is something essential to their acceptance on Earth.

I like how later in the story when he's a bit stressed out he fails his test, but not so spectacularly that they need to take drastic action. He's allowed some time off to get his head straight - another fascinating development in how replicants are tolerated in society. There's strong indication here that replicants can be rehabilitated and re-enter polite society, just like humans. But wait... why are they still killing (or arresting and 'taking apart') Nexus 8's? Why not bring 8's in, give them the new test, and if they're cool just let them go home. Maybe with some monitoring, but basically free. Is it something about new replicants, that they can benefit from self or external therapy, but the Nexus 8's can't? The old medic, living on the farm for 30 years, hardly seems like a drooling psychopath. Heck, even Roy Batty underwent remorse and empathy in his final hours. Destroying the last of the old models seems vindictive, even for this dystopia.

Speaking of testing replicants minds, what the heck was going on when Joe visited Seline, and they sat down at a machine and he showed her a memory of his. How does this fit into any technology at all we've seen so far. Does it only work on memories that are in the ROM of the replicants? Otherwise, could he have played back any memory? Can human memories be read? I don't think so, or otherwise Wallace wouldn't have bothered trying to interrogate Deckard, he would have just put him in a reader.

I'm not looking for things just to complain about, there's a lot to like in this movie that made it worth watching, but I have a problem with the lead actor's expression half the time. It's not quite a shit-eating-grin, its more a shit-eating-smirk. I don't think its supposed to be there, and maybe the actor doesn't even know he's doing it, but the director sure as heck is responsible. It was sometimes quite distracting, as if the character knows something he's not saying, or is about to do something he knows you won't see coming, but nothing ever comes of it.

2018.02.08
I would like to move on to the next phase already of reading the internet's take on this, so I can get back to reading a book, but my subconscious is still working on this movie, turning it over and over and finding more to bite into.

I have a mix of respect and disappointment that this movie felt it had to reference a great many things from the first movie, because it feels like we're just ticking off checkboxes. Hearing quiet bits of the first movie's soundtrack was not welcome at all and even jarring, especially since this director seems to like blaring brass soundtracks. Visiting Gaff at the old age home was painful to watch. Like most true humans in the first movie, they are broken and weak, which is why replicants are being pushed out front towards the danger in the first place. And yet he lives another 30 years? And he's even mildly coherent and still making origami? It doesn't help that it feels like padding to increase the already overly long runtime.

I like how there are whole groups of people who's only existence is scavenging the garbage, like the Dickensian orphanage full of kids who scavenge circuit boards. Wait... wouldn't a machine be better at this? That's probably not the point, its just that there's too many humans and not enough of a decent economy. But... Deckard is living in an abandoned resort, with more luxuries than he could ever use (like holo theatres, and thousands of bottles of whisky). Why aren't the kids scavenging that part of the city, instead of the one that looks like a junkyard that's been picked over for decades. Even if the orphan's masters care about what it does to their lifespan, I'm sure they would have no problem sending in kids for brief missions.

Still, the garbage and pollution is one checkbox that is appreciated. Kipple - the endless and seemingly self-reproducing garbage from the book - was a big part of the background of both the book and the first movie. So is the endless snow that's really just dust or fallout, and the non-stop street sweeping machines that can never really catch up to cleaning it up.

And then there's that one checkbox that I would have never expected them to follow up on and yet there it is: polyglot culture everywhere. You see and hear more languages than seems probable; there's even an old person yelling in Hungarian.

2018.02.11
OK, subconscious has gone quiet on this one, now I can catch up with the internet on this one.

2018.02.13
I was going to start with wikipedia to get the basics and realized I don't think I've ever read the page for the first movie. Completionism wins.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
This reminds me its been too long since I've seen this, though I think I could play most of the movie in my mind.
Didn't know/recall there were seven versions.
You know this movie is deep, you don't even need to be told why, but it is interesting to see all the references to all the scholarship that has grown up around this movie. I don't think I'll follow up on that; it leads to over-dissection.
Its sad that this has to end on the controversy over the multiple versions. Excessive executive meddling led to too many reactionary re-do's, which muddles the point of the movie by overly asking the question of whether the protagonist is a replicant or human, as if that was ever the point. I think some people get lost in trying to reach a conclusion on that point, missing the bigger point that the ambiguity is the answer: to have trouble telling who's a replicant and who's a human is the point. I think even the director lost sight of that when he decided to resolve the ambiguity; I lost a lot of respect for him when I learned that; its as if he doesn't even get the point of his own movie. Which is entirely possible, sometimes the art is greater than the sum of the artists who made it. More ambiguity; it's like a fractal.

I'm surprised that Roy's final words gets its very own wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_in_rain_monologue
Which I shouldn't be, it deserves it. I'm impressed that Rutger Hauer turned the scripted nonsense into something so transcendent. This is one of the biggest points of the movie, that in his final moments Roy has a soul (whatever you think that means), which is far better conveyed by Hauer's choice of words, and his acting. Many artists creating a greater sum, indeed.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/BladeRunner
Always fun, but I guess I knew most of this already.

2018.02.15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_2049
That straightened out a few facts, but doesn't change anything.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/BladeRunner2049

The consensus is that K dies at the end. As a movie, as a story, and and as character, of course he should die at the end. But the movie forgot to take two things into account:
* there was no rush. K should have plenty of time to patch himself up before taking Deckard to Seline (Stelline, whatever).
* K is replicant tough. A combat medic put him through a wall and all he needed was a liquid bandaid. He should either survive his wounds, or slip into an unconscious state that Deckard, whenever he gets done with his reunion, should still be able to get him help for.
If the movie really wanted to nail down a heroic sacrifice, they didn't bother. Unless, of course, ending a Blade Runner movie with ambiguity is the point. It leaves the door open to a sequel, but from what I've read of the business results of this movie, its not likely.

I still don't understand why Wallace had Luv (now that I know her name I really don't like it) transport Deckard somewhere. I know, its so K could rescue him, but why not just torture him right there at Wallace HQ? Tvtropes says he needs to be taken off-world to be tortured? I guess its OK to routinely invade the police station, killing cops and stealing evidence whenever you want, but oh no, can't do torture on Earth.

Joi insisted on being moved, not copied, so she could be mortal? That sounds dumb, but emotionally honest. I guess I can go along with it.

2018.02.19
I was wondering why Las Vegas was abandoned, dirty bomb sounds good, but how does Deckard survive there for decades? Is this a nod toward him being a replicant? Or do you just have to go outside in a environmental suit? Either way, the population of an abandoned resource rich city should be greater than 1 (not counting replicant dog).

It's not elaborated on here or in the original - who are all these replicants fighting off-world? Each other? Proxy soldiers for human wars?

I still don't get what K did to fake Deckard's death. Altered some records? He could probably do so at LAPD, they apparently don't even have locks on the doors.

I love that Deckard has Gaff's old spinner.

There are a bunch of references to literature, movies, the bible. Even when I got it, it just feels like in-jokes the creator is taking liberties with at the expense of distracting the audience. The reference to A Scanner Darkly (assignment: track down yourself) was nice, though.

The Meta Twist is a good one, can't praise it highly enough. That was a great moment when the resistance leader has to let K's hopes down, and that other (all?) replicants have had that dream; they all wanted to be the one.

That took a while, but its tvtropes; every rabbit hole is full of more rabbit holes.

Now to watch the 3 short films. Starting at:
http://bladerunnermovie.com/

I watch the trailer. Its so horrifically spoilerific it only increases my resolve to never watch a trailer again until I've seen the movie first.

Wait, what.. is this a tumblr... its a tumblr site. What an odd choice for a product site. How am I supposed to find anything, use /archive? Its just noise. Looking for the short films... this interface is unusable.

Trying http://roadto2049.bladerunnermovie.com/
Scrolling down, moving through the timeline, this is an interesting perspective, at least. 2018... scrolling 2019... 2022 The Blackout, click play. Intro by the director. I don't want an intro anymore than I want a trailer.

So, The Blackout, just what it says on the tin, and nothing more. Reminds me a lot of the Animatrix.

2036: Nexus Dawn. Wallace is supposed to be a genius? He just killed his own seeing-eye-replicant. How is he supposed to get home now?

2048: Nowhere to Run. Now that actually felt like part of the Blade Runner universe. And I spotted the Adam Savage cameo on my own, it was more obvious that I was led to believe.

podcast Still Untitled : Blade Runner 2049 SPOILERCAST!
I've been looking forward to finally listening to this for a while, and it was good for appreciating some of the finer points, but it was not very critical. I still want someone to explain why this movie had to be so long - not that its such a problem when you have the Blu-Ray at home. I'm disappointed that one of the hosts keeps flogging the point that Deckard is a replicant (as others have said, it invalidates the point of the first movie), and some good arguments were made, but I won't fall back to anything past the ambiguity position (I'm also disappointed that he keeps comparing Joi to a sex toy, when she's more of a waifu). And still no mention of earning K's death at the end. There was no hurry, they could have fixed him up before the trip to the daughter. Does Deckard even know how to fly the new LAPD spinner? Maybe its got facial recognition (eyeball serial number recognition) and he won't even be able to start it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bladerunner/
A mixed bag, as you might expect. Some finds:

https://www.provideocoalition.com/AOTC-Bladerunner-2049
Interview with the editor.
The opening line of the movie is K saying to Sapper "I hope you don’t mind me taking the liberty. I tried not to drag in any dirt". And they didn't, and I'm still surprised about it.
Great article on the artistry of editing in general, and in this movie in particular. And another reminder of what a large scale collaboration this is, and how fortunate it is when movies come out good at all.
There are some interesting cuts I would like to see (like Joi out with K, reacting embarrassed to a Joi advert). I know I've been sort of complaining that the movie is too long, but as long as one is making the time commitment, I'm curious what would the 4 hour edit looks like.

Off to YouTube, and see what Red Letter Media has to say (because ever since that Phantom Menace review I care what they say).
Half in the Bag Episode 133: Blade Runner 2049
I think I have to agree that Harrison Ford did a better job here than the first one, bringing humanity to the role. Something he didn't do in the first movie, where he was supposed to be human, and pretty much every character comes out as flat.

Doesn't add much, too bad Plinkett is not in the room for this one. Maybe I don't need to watch reviews he's not sitting in on.

If I really like a movie it usually ends up as my computer's desktop background for a few weeks. For a movie that is so consistently pleasing to the eye, there are surprisingly few still images that are useful. No dark cityscapes with spinners somewhere; I guess the movie does a good job of building this imagery up while you watch. I settle on the giant pink Joi advertisement pointing her finger at K.

I check out DeviantArt, ArtStation, Concept Art World, etc. I'm surprised there's not that much out there. I guess it didn't inspire that many artists.
There's a book "The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049", seemingly more movie photos than concept art. I do enjoy living in a time when I can watch a brief YouTube video of someone flipping through that entire book.

After all this over examination, I find I am only liking the movie more, especially with the increased knowledge of how much care was put into its making. I look forward to seeing it again sometime, whenever it hits one of the streaming services I'm subscribed to. But, I said the same exact thing about Mad Max 4, and I still haven't watched that again.

What still bothers me:
First, Las Vegas, fairly clean of pollution, is not picked clean by now by human scavengers, let alone robot scavengers that could have been sent in. Maybe K only got in because he's police? Nah, no one could cordon off a whole city, especially not this dysfunctional world.
Second, K's death at the end is earned in story, but not on the screen. There's no rush to taxi Deckard to Stelline; K had plenty of time to do at least some stabilizing healing, or even seek full medical care. Not quite third, why take Deckard there, in public, in full daylight? Why risk being spotted, or ending up on security footage where facial recognition could find you?

2018.03.05
Am I done with this? I don't think about it anymore. Listening to soundtrack, its not as harsh as I remember it.

2018.03.07
I find Off-World News [http://off-worldnews.blogspot.com/]; so many references to articles of interest.
The director hoped for more Oscars for the audio, regrets the length of the movie, Ridley Scott thought it was too long. I wonder if the 4 hour version will ever be released.
If you really like to dive deep into metaphor about souls, and eyes, and biblical references, etc. there's miles of this stuff for you.
There's even more production work than you think; it taking days to generate rain, or months to generate Rachel's brief scene, a year to film the sex scene.
The VFX supervisor says Blade Runner world never went digital, its tech is analog based. It might have something to do with the Blackout. Not sure what to make of it but it adds a layer of interest.
There's a VR game coming. Games based on movies rarely work, but the Blade Runner game from the late 90s was decent.
The current DVD release has no deleted scenes, no director commentary.
Villeneuve says he had to cut "a really magnificent aerial sequence when K and Joi fly to Las Vegas". I want that. But there doesn't seem to be much more content worth adding back in, not to the director.
A fan theory that in noir movies, someone has to hire the detective to set him on his path of discovery; the client was Ana Steline, seeding memories in hopes that some day a replicant would track it down and find her parents.
Ridley Scott has ideas for another Blade Runner, but considering he had to speak up years later on Deckard's humanity status, he should probably just quit while he's ahead. Blade Runner 2049 helped to take a bit of sting out of his comment, so thanks for that.
Some Adam Savage videos: recreating the binoculars that Deckard held in the movie (for all of 10 seconds), visiting the prop department for the movie, etc.

2018.03.30
I don't find myself thinking of this movie much at all anymore, but I will try to visit Off-World News from time to time.

Staring at Glowing Rectangles

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

The Crown season 1 (2016)

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Altered Carbon (2018)

Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Empire of Scents (2014)

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)