Blade Runner 2049: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the title I reviewed. The opinions I share are my own.”
The Movie:
LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new blade runner, 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 (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
Blade Runner is one of my favorite films of all time. It blends the perfect amount of science fiction and drama in one unbelievable film. There was a concern from me with BR2049 that another director (as fantastic as Denis Villeneuve is) would take away from the original vision and feel from the film. My worries were completely gone as the film began to play out. I can honestly and easily say that this film feels exactly the same in look and tone to the original and can sit side by side with it. The story is so damn good. It’s hopeful, beautiful and also really heartbreaking all rolled into one phenomenal narrative. Gosling gives such a great and impressive performance. His character doesn’t really show much emotion but he’s able to convey them really well with his eyes. Ford continues to show just how much of a legend and badass that he is with his recent performances. His presence is something that can’t be rivaled and the moment he showed up on screen he had my attention. This is one of those movies that comes across every so often and will keep you thinking about it for a while. It’s shot beautifully and has a story that rivals its predecessor which doesn’t happen very often. This is an easy recommendation especially if you loved the original. 9/10
4K Presentation:
The moment I saw this film in theaters I knew that it was going to look fantastic in 4K and I was right. The clarity is so nice and crisp that I was impressed by it within the first 15 minutes or so. The colors in almost every scene were so vibrant and beautiful. They really popped and part of it is because of the fantastic environments. The black levels are really nice as well and give the viewer a nice view of the whole scene despite the lack of light at times. This was probably one of the better films on this format for sure.
Special Features:
Prologues: – 3 fantastic shorts (2022: Blackout, 2036: Nexus Dawn and 2048: Nowhere To Run) that give a good amount of backstory on certain characters and plot points.
Designing the World of Blade Runner 2049 – An excellent feature that gives insight on creating the futuristic world of BR2049 from interviews that include the cast and crew.
To Be Human: Casting Blade Runner 2049 – A nice look at how they managed to find just the right people to bring this film to life.
Blade Runner 101 – 6 quick features that look into more of the design aspect of the film.
