Blade Runner 2049 Digital Release (12/26/17)

"I didn't even know the movie came out.  Is it still out?"

My friend had no idea about 2017's Blade Runner 2049.  I admit that I intended on supporting it as it initially came out in theaters and heard the infamous 'mixed reviews'.  I paused where I shouldn't have.  The original Blade Runner (1982) was an imprimatur for me, having not seen it in theaters 35 years ago, but instead on the VHS release in 1983 and as a laser-disc rental in 1987.

In stark contrast to the hopeful, lighthearted space opera of Star Wars and its deviations, one could have described it as 'hard' sci-fi.  For me, the term held a place in a world, if you could get it, of Omni magazine, Heavy Metal short stories (or the movie, which was extremely hard to find as a child), Star Trek short stories, Twilight Zone, etc.

1982 Blade was lacked hope for most of it.  It was destructive.  It was as gritty as a Raymond Chandler novel.  I felt most affinity to Blade from Chandler, especially coming across his novella Red Wind (1938).  Dystopian.  Bleak.  Litter-filled to the point you felt like you were gagging on it.

As it came to Denis Villeneuve's interpretation, under the eye of Ridley Scott, with writers Hampton Fancher and Michael Green - this is a sequel, let there be no doubt, of 1982 Blade.

Even as Villeneuve struggles with the lackluster performance of the film, it still is making an imprint with critics.  If there is any solace, keep in mind it has been one of the worst years in some time for the box office generally.  Villeneuve shouldn't overthink it based on this - this is a much larger, systemic problem at work here.  It needs to be solved at the studio, marketing and theater level.  To strike a tangent, I think studios have made it to easy to wait.  I know I say to myself, in making a decision to go to the theater, that I could just as simply wait a few weeks and it'll be out on digital.  Which is what I did.  By pushing that expectation out - I'm sure I wouldn't have had to wait.  [It released yesterday, 12/26/17.]

And, in the end, it is an engaging film.  There could be a lot to speak to - it is not as tangible as the first film.  Practical effects and focus on faces and not bleak landscapes is a note to take to mind.  1982 Blade was about character.  When we shift too much attention to the wars, their outcome, the current state, we could get lost.

Where the movie shines is in having a replicant be the protagonist.  This is weird at first, and there are questions all the way to the end, but it resolves itself in a way that is true to all the characters.

I wonder if, in the boardrooms of the world, where someone has to speak strongly about 'scale'.  "It needs to have scale.  It needs to breath.  We need to go..."  Scale doesn't fix anything.  It's already there if your story has a solid foundation.  In 2049 the protagonist goes from LA to San Diego to Las Vegas and back again.  The spaces in between those take up enough time to be noticeable.  Plus, I don't feel we got anything by going there.  We are just seeing more of the same dystopia.

In the end, I still recommend a rental.  It is definitely worth it.  Where I have these gripes, I only shy away from its strengths as they would spoil some of the threads.

What shines is the 'love' interest of the protagonist replicant, 'K' (Ryan Gosling) and a tailored AI partner, Joi (Ana de Armas).  Their relationship, when you think deeply of the future and what it surely holds, is eerie.  It will happen.  Replicants in love with AI.  Humans loving replicants.  'Real' is so blurred, it holds almost no purport in questioning.  Deckard (Harrison Ford) even throws the question of 'real' back in the face of K, as if to say 'what does it matter - the world is f*cked as it is'.

Ana de Armas as Joi

The momentum of the movie also has you question the relationship of conception and the future.  There is one scene in particular that calls me back (where 1982 Blade had a half a dozen), is K questioning a doctor (Carla Juri) about implanting memories.  There is emotion and gravity to the scene, and, without it, I don't think the movie would be as strong.

I purchased it immediately yesterday off of Vudu.  They typically bundle their products with some extras - in this case about a dozen behind-the-scene vignettes.  Nothing too deep - and perhaps what may be missing and corrected in a director's cut.

To full edwardianjackal site.

NaNoWriMo - Let Slip the Dogs of War

Getting prepped for this year's National November Writing Month.  (Last year's was cut short as I grieved with my family over our beloved cousin's tragic death...it took much time, and we love her sorely, and time moves on...there isn't a day that goes by that one of us here thinks or talks about her...she was such a light.)

This year I am departing from my usual novel fodder and shifting to science fiction.  I've had more than a few short stories, but I have used my commute time to come up with a full three novel arch for a character that I've loved for some time - the 'huntress'.  There has been little depth to a character that I first envisioned back in college (with a video short called 'Hunter's Silhouette').  This time around, she is fully fleshed out with a back-drop of a universe that's been quelling inside.

I thank you for visiting my site and I'll be updating this month a lot of other efforts - video, podcast and artwork.  Keep coming back each week for something new!

hear:Sonder 'Too Fast'

poem:"Impossible"

on DeviantArt...

Fate never allowed
It only teased the potential, the heady glimmer of what could have been
It knew a passing reflection for a narcissist would be enough
Fate allowed enough
The declarative was all that's left

Summed in a glance and the warmth of a breath

Can't say the word gone
As there was nothing before or since, time never the factor
Does an idea hold time?

As the adage may sway when playing with it, an idea,
It, and of itself, is all naught
An empty hand

Here you were, all,
And all to me

I would have fought worlds, conquered stars
Cheated death, amassed armies, tore asunder all the world's foundations and built Parnassus anew
Had that chance been given

Fleeting as the shadow of a bird on the periphery

Quiet and unkempt
Lost in the other shadows

Past

and

nothing.

spinning:"change"

Building...and building...

snippet:prayer for the dreadful...

LOUI JOVER

“Then, brothers, it came. Oh, bliss, bliss and heaven. I lay all nagoy to the ceiling, my gulliver on my rookers on the pillow, glazzies closed, rot open in bliss, slooshying the sluice of lovely sounds. Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh.” 
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

“Great Music, it said, and Great Poetry would like quieten Modern Youth down and make Modern Youth more Civilized. Civilized my syphilised yarbles.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

"...Ravenous longitudes
of desire and sin did we walk upon
and the delight ran dry
decay decay
and hue drawn in grey
crayon..."
- 1936

at least try "Brief Encounter"...

So Dark Horizons (http://www.darkhorizons.com/study-millennials-dont-like-pre-1970s-films/) said that Millennials don't like pre-1970s movies...as there would be a 40+ year difference, that would be akin to me not liking pre-1930s movies: although the difference would not stand.  There are technical limitations with the comparison, as many of the silent era movies are a bit harder to grasp.  So understandably with Millenials, black and white would be harder to grasp.

Attune yourself to constrasts and light is my response.  Black and white to anyone is jarring, as it would have been to anyone for the first time...however you adjust.  You see nuances you don't see in color.  Textures.  Facial expressions are not hidden behind garish hues - but open.  Emoting is straightforward, subtle.

As a case in point to pre-70s movies that will change your perspective on cinema (if not life), try David Lean's 1945 drama, Brief Encounter.

If you want a solid stay-home date movie, you'll find no better.  Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard offer the best performances on film, all guided under the expert of subtle gravitas, Sir David Lean.  The music is incredible, using motifs from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 2.  It lingers with you after, forever.

There may be free versions on-line, but that's simply not our style, spend a few dollars and enjoy: https://www.amazon.com/Brief-Encounter-David-Lean/dp/B001OAZC4Y.  If it is a date night, enjoy a vodka+soda with salt and pepper popcorn.  If you're lucky to make a meal for your date, I would go for beef medallions in a red wine reduction with peas and lightly toasted focaccia.