![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Before saying anything else about this film, I have to say there is this huge 500lb-gorilla problematic thing about it. People who are raving about the film and saying it should win this or that award are either ignoring that gorilla or just don't care. For me, this movie is going into the category of "likable problematic things." 4/5 stars for what they accomplished.
Let's talk first about the problematic thing because I can do that without spoilers: in a word, REPRESENTATION. The movie barely passes the Bechdel test for one scene between Sylvia Hoeks's Luv and Robin Wright's Lt. Joshi. Both women are good, but this is a sideshow. No major actors of color in the film. Two black actors have speaking roles, and both are - to some degree - stereotypes. In a movie set in future California, the lack of any Hispanic persons is notable. In a movie future where people slip back and forth into Asian languages and writing the lack of Asian actors is just screamingly noticeable.
If you can get past that, let's talk about the actual movie. First, the good bits: it's gorgeous. Visually lush and saturated and rich with detail. The visuals do more than justice to the original. The pace is excellent - the movie is long but never feels like it drags. I would have cut some bits - see spoiler section below - but if you look away you're likely to miss something.
The soundtrack is also rich and lush and omnipresent. It's good - Hans Zimmer does his best to live up to Vangelis's original - but the fact that I notice the soundtrack so much means it's overdone. It's loud and pushy in places, and lacks subtlety.
Gosling turns in a very good performance and Harrison Ford turns in an excellent one. In case you had any doubts about whether Ford has lost it, ditch those. He's a great actor and does a great job here.
There are lots of things to like here. My favorite is the not-actually-sex scene that dives headfirst into an intersection of technology and attraction and physicality I haven't seen represented before. It's not actually a new concept for long-time SF fans but this is one of the best enactments I've ever seen on film.
I also like that the film (mostly) sticks with the core themes of what does it mean to be human? The casual racism of Lt Joshi as she's talking to K is nearly as cutting as Niander Wallace's casual knifing of another replicant. If you don't see them as human then things follow "logically" from that, a fallacy that every slave-owning class has ever fallen into. Unlike the original film, here replicants seem to know they are replicants, but the question of what does it mean to be human still haunts them. This again makes the film worth seeing.
( Plot spoilers be here )
So, yeah. Brilliant but flawed, and deeply problematic. A lot like the original.
Let's talk first about the problematic thing because I can do that without spoilers: in a word, REPRESENTATION. The movie barely passes the Bechdel test for one scene between Sylvia Hoeks's Luv and Robin Wright's Lt. Joshi. Both women are good, but this is a sideshow. No major actors of color in the film. Two black actors have speaking roles, and both are - to some degree - stereotypes. In a movie set in future California, the lack of any Hispanic persons is notable. In a movie future where people slip back and forth into Asian languages and writing the lack of Asian actors is just screamingly noticeable.
If you can get past that, let's talk about the actual movie. First, the good bits: it's gorgeous. Visually lush and saturated and rich with detail. The visuals do more than justice to the original. The pace is excellent - the movie is long but never feels like it drags. I would have cut some bits - see spoiler section below - but if you look away you're likely to miss something.
The soundtrack is also rich and lush and omnipresent. It's good - Hans Zimmer does his best to live up to Vangelis's original - but the fact that I notice the soundtrack so much means it's overdone. It's loud and pushy in places, and lacks subtlety.
Gosling turns in a very good performance and Harrison Ford turns in an excellent one. In case you had any doubts about whether Ford has lost it, ditch those. He's a great actor and does a great job here.
There are lots of things to like here. My favorite is the not-actually-sex scene that dives headfirst into an intersection of technology and attraction and physicality I haven't seen represented before. It's not actually a new concept for long-time SF fans but this is one of the best enactments I've ever seen on film.
I also like that the film (mostly) sticks with the core themes of what does it mean to be human? The casual racism of Lt Joshi as she's talking to K is nearly as cutting as Niander Wallace's casual knifing of another replicant. If you don't see them as human then things follow "logically" from that, a fallacy that every slave-owning class has ever fallen into. Unlike the original film, here replicants seem to know they are replicants, but the question of what does it mean to be human still haunts them. This again makes the film worth seeing.
( Plot spoilers be here )
So, yeah. Brilliant but flawed, and deeply problematic. A lot like the original.
