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****
Dir: Denis Villeneuve (15, 160 mins)
A sequel to a bona fide classic science fiction film is a risky prospect, especially one that set the template for all future dystopias after its 1982 release. The influence of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner can be seen in everything from The Matrix to anime to TV’s Battlestar Galactica to any film with neon set in the near distant future. Ground-breaking for its time with an arthouse visual aesthetic and script that clung to the hardcore sci-fi of Philip K Dick. The wonderful, depressingly realised future was all about atmosphere; cars/spinners could fly but there were no obvious chases. Instead there was a dissemination on what it means to be human, man playing god and a central detective whose nature has been debated ever since. Denis Villeneuve seems a safe pair of hands to marshal the sequel, he brought us the intelligent sci-fi of Arrival, and the return of Harrison Ford as the original Blade Runner, Rick Deckard, and Ryan Gosling as his younger equivalent bodes well. Whether this will adhere as closely to the enigmatic profundity of its predecessor is open to question, action seems to figure more heavily, but hopefully this too will break new cinematic ground rather than re-tread elements so many have copied since the original. May it be worthy of its origins and not be lost like tears in rain. Origami unicorn anyone?
Opens Oct 6