Hari K Patibanda

I loved the original Blade Runner movie. It had a great story, good actors, nice direction and a great balance of action vs story telling. Lot of new futuristic concepts that were exciting to think about. However, for the Blade Runner 2049 I struggled to pay attention to the movie. It is a clearly a critics movie and requires significant attention to overcome boredom. Too much attention is paid to the environment which is more like a small factor (others may disagree). The dystopian future, the buildings, lack of trees, all sound interesting to a point, but then it starts to bore once that picture is set in the mind. The futuristic concepts that wowed us in the original are rehashed and there is nothing new here as well. Another negative there. The big thing that annoyed me thoroughly was that the actors movement is so abnormally slow many a time. Somehow slow movement seems to equate to good acting, but this was a thorough distraction to me. Many of them are supposed to be replicants and display super human strength, but why the hell do they move so slowly baffled me. The story line is also very complicated and often hard to follow. On top of all this, the movie is abnormally long (close to 2.5 hours+). Its only quite late in the movie that the plot connects and till then its not clear what is happening in the screen. The music is quite loud and often jarring. Its not something one can hum or remember at the end of the movie. I don't remember a movie ever when I enjoyed the interval break so much.No wonder the movie bombed. Disappointed by this sequel.