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.

read:"The Fires of Magellan"

the fore of our ships we called razors
stared straight at the hundreds of hardened synthmonds
of gold, green and black
pointed at us, at our rock, the Magellan

three against us, hours away from any help.

'our training' they say will save you

and so it will
no one spake, there was no need
the ports were quiet, motion was all the noise
fuel cells loaded, munitions stocked
we didn't make eye contact, we knew it was the end
and only 22 survived of 10754

three stood against us, not even firing
hoping to take us without a fight
but it was a strategy soured
for they did not know us and our resolve
not one on the ship said otherwise

but 'fight' soundlessly awoke

sidearms were readied if it were to go ship to ship

they gave only seconds, and seconds was all we needed
and the pre-solute gave its all, focused on the two
while nav pulled to starboard, making a wall between it and the last
90% was given

followed by us razors, a hundred screamed to the fore
'find a break in the dam' and so we did
the Magellan lunged at the nearest, a hulking fire

two ships unloaded their fury at it
(but they reserved again) 

and half of our core was lost
the crew in a furnace, but we did not pause
in memorial, not yet, fingers still on weapon control

and our ships were picked off one by one

"Alpha" came the call sign
the second lieutenant the last left aboard the bridge
we all could see, betwixt lasers and explosions, the Magellan
a fire of fury and anger driving to the fore
at both capitals, screaming with fury

they say a few saw them through the break
the Cap'n at the bridge, frozen to his console

and the last could do little
our contigent harassed it as it fled

two capitals went orange, below conditional
twenty two razors remained
they we call the 'witnesses'
the third Fed ran, never firing a shot

running

the Magallen forced through the dying hulls of two
out the other side
and toward the third, we don't even say its name
for it is cowards and cowards are no luck
in space

pushed through and onward and that's the way Magallen'll stay
a flotilla of tribute, a rock of honor
black as night, some say embers remain upon it

two Fed ships down, the other horrified
and the twenty two went on to fight for other sticks
and take down more

the Magellen! we cry each time we kill
the dark star sitting among the jewels

...the last breath...31dec16...

The verge of a cry grew heavy, right above the bridge of her nose, but she refused it.  She had never cried as an adult.  Never cried in Academy.  Didn't cry when her pelvis was smashed in a training accident.  She would not do it now.  She flatly refused.  Limited air.  She knew better than flail her arms.  Time and energy were her world right now.  Distance was a star that she would shoot for.

She was falling, end over end, away from the hull of what once was the Halifax.  Mei was blown clear when the exterior hallways collapsed, depressurized by the explosions of the unknown capital ship.  She could see them now, a brown flat dot in the distance, flaring with a few missile hits, mere dots.  They were 20% declination to 30,0 to the Halifax - a minor blind spot - but an effective one.

First stop momentum.  She poised her body as if she were taking off in a rocket pack from the ground, her hands and feet at a similar angle.  Mei watched the Halifax as it swung out of view.  Easy.  No need to waste air.  The oxygen bag enveloped her body on the abrupt change in pressure from the hallway into space.  It had about fifteen minutes worth of breathable time.  The battery had enough to get her back to the Halifax.  More than likely picked up as a prisoner.  Better than death.

She closed her eyes into squints and focused on her position and fall away from the ship.  She could see others, still in death, floating away.  There was debris.  Chunks of the asteroidic skin that enveloped the capital ship.  Steel.  If one had the chance to hit her, she may as well give up.

Slow.  She released oxygen toward the direction of her spin, easing it out of her hands with a small release button.  Instead of overcompensating the entire spin, she let go of the release once the ship was out of view.  It saved energy.  Energy that was going to be needed to give her momentum back toward the ship.  If she blew it all at once, that was it.

Her Academy drill officer, Andrews, came immediately back.  This will save your life.

Let's see, Andrews.  Mei was calm for being minutes from death.  You have to be.  Living in space for over seven years now, you were only inches from death anywhere on the ship.  This was a war, not a field trip.  Their losses, like the Halifax, would be yet another blow for the Bureaucracy.

After three spins, slowing each time, she made a direct line for herself toward the Halifax.  Escape pods were popping from ventral.  That's where I'll head.

She very easily released more air, this time pushing behind her, toward her legs.  It started to bring her forward, pushing against the initial momentum that led her here.  She did not look behind her, only forward.  She didn't look at how much energy and oxygen were left.  It would be a distraction and panic will make her heart rate soar.

She started to move and felt the cold of space start to creep into the suit.  It was only rated for so much, and it had already gave a lot of itself.  A little more.  Once she felt she had the momentum, she stopped the release.  She slowed her breathing.  The Halifax grew larger.  Fires had broken out all around it.  No large debris seemed to be ahead of her.  She fixed herself to the bottom of the ship and toward the floating pods.  They did not push far from the ship, just close to rely upon the Halifax's incidental gravity.  It must not be in danger of exploding, that is good.  But fire must be the reason the ventral crew left.

Twenty minutes from the ship.  Her air would not make it, but, if she could will herself to pass out, she may make it.  She had a flechette that would knock her out.  She pulled on it from the outside of the suit and it just needed to be pulled away and angled toward the soft of her forearm.  She made sure that she was correctly angled.  One deep breath, and she injected herself.

The cold of the needle and the icy liquid as it ran into her arm was a shock, but only temporarily.  Mei instantly felt the effect of the drug and passed out.  She watched the Halifax and could see the small silhouettes of the crew as they busied themselves in putting out its fires...