First off, kudos to the filmmakers for making a trailer the right way -- giving you just enough but not so much that you feel like you've seen the whole movie, while dropping enough hints that it doesn't feel like watching one of those old, inscrutable Mad Men post-episode promos.
Here's a few things we know for sure (and some things we don't) after watching this epic deeper dive.
No matter what it's going to be gorgeous - Regardless of the quality of the movie (although considering the pedigree of the actors and behind the camera team, I am expecting good things) there is no doubt that it will be a visual feast for the eyes. Not since I first saw the trailer for Mad Max Fury Road have I seen a big screen thriller look so distinct and beautiful. Cinematographer Roger Deakins (best known for his work on Coen brothers films and Skyfall) appears to have outdone himself again.
The visual aesthetic is similar but also different - There are several homages to the groundbreaking and incredibly influential special effects and set design of the original -- from flying cars to overwhelming advertisements poking through a fog and rain drenched cityscape. But modern technology and a substantially bigger budget suggest that this Blade Runner will be an even more ambitious production that will be more expansive than the claustrophobic 1982 masterpiece.
Ryan Gosling is a 'cop' - Little is known about the plot or details of this film, but what is clear from this trailer is that Gosling plays a cop (and perhaps more specifically a blade runner) just like Ford did in the original film. What plot the new trailer does reveal also seems to revolve around secrets pertaining to Gosling's identity, he is told that he is "special" and that pages from his story are missing. Hopefully these reveals will be surprising and illuminating instead of gimmicky.
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| Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049 |
Harrison Ford kick ass -- but is he human? - It looks like the Harrison Ford renaissance which began with his comeback as Han Solo in The Force Awakens has continued here. He looks great and grizzled as presumably his same character from the original -- Rick Deckard. I'm excited to see that his role will be more than a glorified cameo and that he too will mix it up in the action scenes, but I am also nervous, because how this film justifies his presence will go a long way towards either enhancing the ending of the original or tarnishing it.
Is Jared Leto the new Tyrell? - This new trailer gave us our first glimpse of a very creepy looking Jared Leto as a new manufacturer of replicants (as well as Robin Wright as perhaps Gosling's superior officer). I am curious if Leto's character will be linked to the megalomaniacal villain from the original -- Eldon Tyrell -- who winds up a victim of his own hubris. Leto is an actor I run hot and cold with, but he at least seems more restrained here than he was in the dreadful Suicide Squad.
Is it going to be more accessible than the original? - I pose this question as not necessarily a good thing. While the 1982 original Blade Runner certainly had its thrilling moments, it was almost aggressively uncommercial. It was slow-paced and brooding with a difficult to interpret ending (which was clarified significantly by the superior Director's Cut). Blade Runner has become such a cult classic and critical darling that it is often overlooked that the original was a big, fat flop.
Audiences at the time were expecting an escapist Star Wars-style movie and wound up with a brilliant but arty treatise on the nature of humanity. Blade Runner 2049 looks to be very action-packed, which may satisfy newcomers to the series, but could suggest a less heady offering for hardcore fans.
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