Monday, December 19, 2016

Trailer Review: BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Teaser Trailer #1)


After years of rumors of a follow-up from Ridley Scott, an official announcement of a Denis Villeneuve directed film, and months of radio silence, the first teaser for the highly anticipated Blade Runner follow-up, Blade Runner 2049, has finally arrived. Set 30 years after the original, this film sees Ryan Gosling playing a new Blade Runner who finds himself searching for Rick Deckard, who disappeared 30 years ago after the events of the original film.


You can watch the trailer below.



As a massive fan of the original, I'm very happy to see that Denis seems to be sticking extremely close to the aesthetic of the original. Blade Runner had a very specific look to it, a look that would end up defining an entire genre of storytelling in cyberpunk, so getting that look down was paramount to truly making this feel like a Blade Runner movie. And from the trailer, we can see this attention to detail even in the cinematography. For this film, Denis is working with his frequent collaborator, Roger Deakins, who previously shot two of his other films, Sicario and Prisoners, as well as others like No Country for Old Men, Skyfall, and The Shawshank Redemption. The result is a beautiful looking frame with shots that not only look like they could've been pulled out of the original, but look amazing in their own right. The same goes for the excellent use of color and shadow in the trailer that would make any noir fan proud.

Story-wise, the trailer doesn't show much. It has some voice over from Rick Deckard, pulled out of the original film, while showing Ryan Gosling's blade runner in a desert-like enviornment, exploring an abandoned building only to discover Deckard himself hiding within, gun in hand. We don't get much else, given that this is just a teaser, but it promises to see these two cinematic greats finally on screen together, which makes me very excited.

As a side, note, we also got what seems to be a sneak peek at the music in the film, using melodies from the original, but composed by Denis' longtime collaborator, Jóhann Jóhannsson, instead of original composer, Vangelis. I'll admit, the lack of Vangelis this time around has me somewhat worried about the quality of the score, but I thought Arrival, the last score composed by Jóhann Jóhannsson, had fine music attached to it, so perhaps it's nothing to worry about.

Speaking of Arrival, the fact that it was the last film that Denis himself directed makes me more confident that this film will be at least a worthy successor. Without going into a complete review of Arrival, what it told me about Denis is that he's very much willing to go into some hard sci-fi and experiment with the way he tells his stories, and I think that kind of filmmaking prowess, along with the heady topics explored in Arrival, make the idea of him doing the sequel to Blade Runner about the next best thing to Ridley Scott in the director's chair. The movie isn't slated until October, so we'll definitely be getting more of the film before then, but until then, consider me hyped for what's to come. Hopefully, that anticipation is one thing that won't be lost like tears in rain.

Blade Runner 2049 is set for release on October 6, 2017.


Xxx



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