Have you recovered from your post-Halloween candy gorging yet? I still have a whole bag of those mixed little candy bars left. I should probably throw them out, right? But that just seems wasteful, and maybe I’ll only eat one a day. Let’s face it, we all know what’s going to happen here. I’m going to eat every last one of those things.
And what better way to ruin your diet than eating candy and watching a movie at the same time. We’ve got two movies that I managed to catch in the theater last month. One is fantastic and one is, well, not. How about we start with the good first?
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) [R]
First, I should probably get this out of the way. The original Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies of all time. Yeah, it’s flawed but it is also one of the most influential films ever produced. So, understand that while I came into Blade Runner 2049 a little biased, I also came with really high expectations.
Despite being a sequel that takes place 30 years after the original Blade Runner, I suspect you could still appreciate 2049 on its own but if you’ve got the opportunity, I’d still probably check out the original first. 2049 director Denis Villeneuve also commissioned a trio of folks to make short pieces that fill in the back story between the two feature length films. If you haven’t caught them yet, here are the links: 1. Blade Runner Black Out 2022 2. 2036: Nexus Dawn 3. 2048: Nowhere To Run Do yourself a favor, though, don’t watch any of the trailers for 2049. Keep as much of that a secret as you can until you can have the full experience.
There, if you made it through that and you liked what you saw, you are in for a real treat with Blade Runner 2049. This one’s flawed, too, so don’t get me wrong but as film critic Bryan Bishop wrote in his review:
“Despite its flaws, one thing about Blade Runner 2049 is most welcome: it is trying to be about something. It is trying to be deep, rich, and complex. We’ve grown so used to lowest-common-denominator blockbuster cinema that it’s almost shocking to watch a big science fiction movie, featuring these kinds of stars, swinging for the fences in this way. It’s hard not to be impressed by, and a bit grateful for, the ambition and care evident in every frame.”
And what beautiful frames they are. This is one of the most visually striking films I have seen in years. It was breathtaking to watch in IMAX. The sound design was so careful and so powerful that it is almost overwhelming. Honestly, I feel it is going to take a long time before we see another movie this technically masterful.
It is rare that a sequel can stand toe to toe with its predecessor. Once you’ve seen the first, the shock of the new is gone. But on rare occasions, you get a film that manages to expand and improve on what the original had to offer. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get Aliens or The Godfather 2. A sequel is judged on its ability to honor the spirit of the original as well as what it can accomplish on its own. On both counts and by virtually all measures, Blade Runner 2049 is a breathtaking success.
9 paws out of 10
The Dark Tower (2017) [PG-13]
Okay. For all of you folks that wonder how I can give a movie like CHiPs a 5.5 when you thought it was terrible, here’s why. Some movies are bad but not egregiously so and yet still entertaining. For those, I’ll give them a little bit of a break. Then, there are movies that are just straight up poorly made and boring. Those, I will grade accordingly. But then, you have movies like our second review, The Dark Tower.
There was clearly a lot of thought and money poured into The Dark Tower. Its source material is a series of eight books that Stephen King describes as his magnum opus. It has Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and Golden Globe winner Idris Elba as the two leads. This was a clearly a big deal to a bunch of Hollywood folks.
I don’t know if maybe they tried to do too much or they didn’t do enough. I’ll admit, I’ve not read any of the books. But I do know that it feels like they tried to make some sort of Hunger Games style teen fantasy series out of this and boy does it look silly. The effects are questionable. The action sequences are boring despite all of the bullets and magic flying around. The actors seem like they are on autopilot. It’s a mess.
It’s not the worst movie I’ve seen, by a mile. But it’s also not a good movie. Stephen King is a good writer and from all accounts, his Dark Tower series deserves a better treatment than it gets here.
4 paws out of 10
As always, if you have a movie you think I should check out or you want to talk further about one of these reviews, drop me a line at collincougar@collin.edu or leave me a message on Facebook.