BLADE RUNNER 2049 is too long. Also, the musical score isn’t as good as the first movie’s wonderful score. That said, the movie holds the viewer’s interest. The characters are fascinating, the performances compelling, and the themes stimulating. BLADE RUNNER 2049 has a strong pro-family worldview, with overt Christian, biblical allusions, but it’s set in a dark fallen world. So, there’s some strong foul language and totally gratuitous images of sexual nudity.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 is the long-awaited sequel to the science fiction classic starring Harrison Ford. Ryan Gosling stars as LAPD Officer K, an android assigned to assassinate super-powerful androids hiding out on Earth. After killing one such android, K finds a box of bones of a woman who died in childbirth. K discovers the woman was an android. He suspects she’s actually the android named Rachael, with whom Harrison Ford’s character, Officer Deckard, escaped to save her from being assassinated by the police. K searches for the child and the father, Deckard, but an evil android’s on his trail, trying to capture the child for its own nefarious purposes.

(BB, CC, Pa, Acap, LL, VVV, SS, NNN, A, D, M) Strong moral worldview venerating family and parents protecting their children at all costs, with overt Christian, biblical allusions such as a reference to the story of Rachel in the Torah and sacrifice, set in a dark fallen world where humanity is almost beyond redemption and mitigated by a pagan interest in images of semi-nude women and some anti-capitalist elements where a corporate leader is a major villain; 16 obscenities (half or so are “f” words) and one GD profanity; brief very strong violence with blood such as gunfights with two or three head shots and strong violence includes intense fighting, other gunfights, people stabbed, explosions, two men punch one another, bodies tossed about, murder; strong sexual content when a hologram ad with a nude woman shows the woman trying to seduce a man (woman’s breasts and rear end are exposed), implied fornication, prostitutes on the street, and salacious images; full frontal male nudity of a nude male android, many images of upper female nudity (including giant statues), implied and obscured full nudity in a couple scenes, some upper male nudity, and some images of rear female nudity; alcohol use; smoking; and, lying, corruption and deceit.

BLADE RUNNER 2049, the long-awaited sequel to the science fiction classic starring Harrison Ford, continues the story by telling how a police android is sent to find and assassinate the child born from the relationship between the police assassin and the female android who fell in love in the first movie. A complex tale that’s a bit too long, BLADE RUNNER 2049 nevertheless has a central story supports the need for family, with some overt Christian, biblical allusions, but it’s set in a really dark world where humans are almost beyond redemption, with some strong foul language and too much gratuitous nudity.

Ryan Gosling stars as LAPD Officer K, an android assigned to find and assassinate Nexus 6 and Nexus 8 androids hiding out on Earth. After killing one android hiding out as synthetic farmer, K finds a box of bones of a woman who died in childbirth. K discovers that the woman was an android. He further suspects that she’s actually the android named Rachael with whom Harrison Ford’s character, Officer Deckard, ran away to save her from being assassinated by the police.

K’s boss tells him to find the child and kill it because, if the child were captured by the newly reconstituted Tyrell Corporation, or, worse, by other androids, humans would be in danger of being wiped out for good. K searches for the child and the father, Deckard. An evil android from the new head of the Tyrell Corporation is on his trail, to capture the child for its own nefarious purposes.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 is too long. The filmmakers should tighten up their story. Also, the musical score isn’t half as good as the wonderful score from the first movie, one of the best soundtracks ever created. That said, the movie for the most part holds the viewer’s interest. The characters are fascinating, the performances compelling, and the themes stimulating.

Like the first movie, BLADE RUNNER 2049 asks what it means to be really human. Having real memories instead of implanted memories is cited as an essential quality of being a human being. Also, at one point, Officer K makes a statement supporting the human benefit of having “a soul.” He realizes that having a soul would give him meaning he doesn’t have.

The movie’s most positive, uplifting theme, however, is its celebration of having a child and being a parent. When K finally meets up with Deckard, the movie reveals that all of Deckard’s actions since the first movie were designed to protect Rachael and their child. The question is, will Officer K turn out to be a good guy or a bad guy? Happily, the movie gives him a good reason to be a good guy.

Despite this, the movie has some strong foul language. Also, the story is set in a dark fallen world where human society is almost beyond redemption. To go along with this, the director inserts a lot of gratuitous nude shots in his movie, including giant statues of semi-nude women in a city that’s been destroyed by some kind of dirty bomb long ago. These images add nothing to the movie, its story or its characters. This isn’t just immoral; it’s also a case of bad filmmaking. Is the director trying to create a compelling science fiction story, or is he trying to make a movie for the Playboy Channel?