Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic, has found a new streaming home onParamount+. So, now’s the chance to give the hard sci-fi thriller a rewatch, as it’s one of the genre’s best films.
Blade Runner 2049takes place in the universe first created by Scott. The sci-fi thriller follows a law enforcer hunting down androids who have become sentient and gone rogue in a futuristic society.Blade Runner 2049centers around K (Ryan Gosling), a “replicant” (an android) who’s also a “blade runner” (futuristic bounty hunter). The plot synopsis reads as follows:
Thirty years after the events ofBlade Runner, a new Blade Runner, L.A.P.D. Officer “K” unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former L.A.P.D. Blade Runner, who has been missing for thirty years.
Blade Runner 2049: Why It Bombed at the Box Office But Is the Best Movie of 2017
Depicting everything special about the science fiction genre, here’s why Blade Runner 2049 is the best film of 2017, despite its box office numbers.
The 2017 film, starring Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto, and Harrison Ford, was a loud box office bomb for Warner Bros. It failed to earn more than $276.6 million from its $185 million production budget; to break even, it had to make close to $400 million. While reviews were great, the film failed to bring audiences into theaters — some attributed this to the 163-minute run time. Despite the presence of original star Harrison Ford and notable performers like Ryan Gosling and Jared Leto, it seemed to be too complex for viewers who don’t care for long films.
As first reported by Collider,Blade Runner 2049is now streaming on Paramount+. Even though it failed to make more money for the studio in 2017, it’s actually one of the highest-rated legacy sequels on Rotten Tomatoes. It currently boasts an 88% Tomatometer score (in the audience score, aka the Popcornmeter, it has an 89% score). Simply put, it’sone of the best hard sci-fi films of modern cinema.
‘Blade Runner 2049’ Is an Ambitious and Extremely Expensive Legacy Sequel
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the visionary behind the underrated sci-fi featureArrivaland genre icons likeDuneandDune: Part Two,Blade Runner 2049is a beautiful film to behold. It is a visual spectacle, unlike any other modern science fiction film. The cinematography by one of the best in the craft, Roger Deakins, and the haunting score by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch are only a couple of the details that make it a unique film in the genre. Nevertheless, these are also some of the reasons why it was such an expensive movie to make.
Villeneuve’s visioncalled for ambitious world-building, and Warner Bros. trusted him enough to provide an excessive production budget. Although the film reportedly had Ridley Scott’s approval, the director said it flopped because it was too long. A curious take, considering his films aren’t exactly short.
Blade Runner 2049
