A visually stunning sequel to its visually stunning predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 is absolutely spectacular! A much darker and more emotional tone makes this movie remarkable! It’s beautifully crafted and definitely a fantastic watch!

With how secretive the marketing is about the plot, I will try and keep the synopsis vague as possible. Blade Runner 2049 is about a blade runner named K (played by Ryan Gosling) on a mission to uncover some deep secrets. That’s pretty much all that I can say. Despite me not saying much, the movie does a great job at revealing one secret after another.

The storytelling is perfect and it’s met with better pacing than the first one. The story itself is really great. The writing by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green is excellently done. The directing by Denis Villeneuve is superb! This could very well be the best work I’ve seen from him, or at least up there with Arrival. Shots are incredibly done and he really did a great job of directing suspenseful action scenes. Cinematography by Roger Deakins is the best cinematography I’ve seen the whole year. Amazing wide shots of the city, desert, and indoors.

The visuals are beautiful. The dark, rainy, neon lights filled future of Los Angeles, the flying cars, the bright orange desert of Las Vegas, everything was just amazing to see on the big screen. The set production as well is very good. It really captured the feel of the future. The score was another plus as Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer bring an astonishing score and quite possibly the best of the year.

The performances are great. Ryan Gosling does his best work I’ve seen from him recently. One performance that took me by surprise was Sylvia Hoeks, she really brought it here. Jared Leto has a very unique performance and it works for his character. Harrison Ford as Deckard is, again, great and I really enjoyed the way he portrays Deckard at a much older age. He’s still the selfish Deckard but older and grumpier.

I really have no nitpicks. The slow pacing from the first one is fixed and it’s so much better. There is a romance in the movie and, again unlike the first one, this one is done better. For me, Blade Runner 2049 is flawless.

Overall, a beautifully crafted movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie gets some recognition from the Academy because this movie really deserves it. It’s got some breathtaking visuals, eye-catching directing and cinematography, good use of sound mixing, and a admirable soundtrack. I believe that Blade Runner 2049 will be talked about for being a solid sequel and one of the best films from Denis Villeneuve. For me, this is one of the best movies of the year. It’s phenomenal 5/5.