September 30, 2017
Getting Ready For Blade Runner 2049
It’s less than a week until the sequel to Blade Runner comes to theaters. And I’m happy to report, many of the film nerds I follow on twitter who’ve had the privilege of seeing an advance screening are all giving it a lot of praise. That shouldn’t come as such as surprise considering the director is Dennis Villeneuve who really killed it with last year’s Arrival. And he’s working with cinematographer Roger Deakins who’s past work includes many of the Coen Brothers films as well as the work of Sam Mendes. This is crucial because the shots and the atmosphere are such a critically important element of the original.
Blade Runner may be my favorite film of all time. There is no question it’s my favorite science fiction film, not to mention my favorite film by Ridley Scott and my favorite adaptation of a Philip K Dick story.
I am looking forward to this sequel so much I thought it would make sense to put together a guide for getting ready:
First, and most obvious, you need to re-watch Blade Runner, preferably the Final Cut. And if you’re lucky enough to have a collection with multiple versions I suggest also watching at least the original theatrical cut, and possibly the Director’s Cut. In the theatrical cut, the narration by Ford gives it a distinctly different experience. It’s pretty much universally accepted that it’s much better without the narration (and apparently Ford was so against doing it that he intentionally made it as campy sounding as possible), but the narration does give some insights to the world of Blade Runner and the characters that make watching it very worthwhile. The theatrical version was the first I ever saw, when I rented it on VHS as a teenager. Now when I watch the high definition final cut It’s astonishing to me how much visual clarity is added.
Next you should watch the three teaser short films that bridge the gap between the original and 2049. Much like the teaser films leading up to Scott’s Alien prequel earlier this year, these short films give context to the characters we can expect to see in the sequel.
Just as important as the visuals are the sounds. This YouTube video does a great job explaining the history of the soundtrack of blade runner, and just how much of an impact it makes on the film.
If you really want to prepare yourself you might consider doing a marathon of movies based on Philip K Dick (PKD) stories. Many of them share the most intriguing sci-fi themes: altered states of reality, personal crises of identity, artificial intelligence and whether it is any less valid human consciousness, corruption in politics and corporations, and the ethics of scientific advances.
Many of the most mind-bending science fiction films are based on the work of PKD. Examples include: Minority Report, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau … and some lesser known gems like Imposter, and the Total Recall 2020 TV series which actually bears a closer resemblance to the world Blade Runner than Total Recall. Although not really sci-fi, A Scanner Darkly and The Man in the High Castle are equally mind-bending.
If you really really want to be ready for the sequel, you could also watch the 1998 movie Solider staring Kurt Russel. David Peoples (one of the writers who converted Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep into Blade Runner) has stated that the film Soldier, which he also wrote, shares the same cinematic universe as Blade Runner, and since Peoples contributed to pretty significantly it’s only fair that he be given some credibility.
Philip K Dick certainly left behind a legacy in sci-fi. I’ve read on twitter that the director Villeneuve had a lot of creative freedom with the sequel, which is great by me. He has proven his abilities with sci-fi, and its very exciting to hear from many institutions that the sequel may even exceed the original.
Labels: Anime, Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, movies, science fiction
April 12, 2017
Movies I've Recently Watched: Logan and Ghost in the Shell
I've seen some pretty excellent movies recently ...
Logan
Logan is without doubt the best film in the X-Men series. It stands alone as a beautiful film that can be enjoyed by fans of the franchise, and non-fans alike. It's just a really great story. You get the best performance yet from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. The premise is simple (spoilers ahead): an aging Wolverine, somehow dying as his healing abilities are fleeting, is caring for an elderly Professor X who is suffering from dementia. It certainly helps if you know the backgrounds of these characters, but you never need to have read a comic or seen a previous film to appreciate the humanity depicted here. In this alternate time-line mutants are more or less wiped out of existence, living on the fringe, which is where Wolverine takes care of Charles. While this is going on, a new person enters their lives and provides purpose again for the old heroes.
Logan is R-rated for extreme violence. Wolverine finally lets his claws out in the way that he has in the comics. It's almost like this film makes up for the lack of blood in previous films in the series. This is the real Wolverine we've waited for a long time to see. A perfect ending for Jackman and Stewart in the series.
Ghost in the Shell
First I'll say that I'm a big anime fan in general, and in particular of the original Ghost in the Shell, although I hadn't seen any of the sequels or supporting series. Back in the early 2000s I became interested in anime. And after reading that a lot of the Matrix, and in particular the character of Trinity, was inspired by GitS, I had to check it out. It's maybe one of the most original and mind tripping cyberpunk sci-fi films I'd ever seen. I loved it, but it took me years to fully appreciate it.
As for the new live action Ghost in the Shell: in some ways I think it's amazing, in others just about average.
Before watching the new Ghost in the Shell I re-watched the original. The new GitS got a lot of flack for the “whitewashing” of the main protagonist from Japanese to Caucasian. The character of Major is a treasure of Japanese culture. To make her character white is egregious. And this comes on the heels of the controversy of the whitewashing of the character of the Ancient One in Dr Strange. It does feature prominent Japanese actor Beat Takeshi (who stared in, wrote and directed one of the weirdest and most interesting movies I've ever seen: Kikujiro no Natsu) as a fantastic chief of Section 9, but that could never make up for the changes to Major. That said, I think Scarlet Johanson pulled off her version of the character just fine. The cast is all around pretty great. The best part of the new GitS is how it visually brings the original to life. The world of GitS is gorgeous in live action. It takes a lot of care to recreate scenes from the original in beautiful detail. That alone is worth seeing it in the theater. Where it breaks down, apart from the changes to Major, is the dumbed-down dialogue. All the interesting aspects of the world of GitS have to be explained by the characters as we progress through the story, as if these characters weren’t fully aware of what a 'Ghost' or a 'Shell' were. This assumes the audience is too lazy to think critically during the movie about the ideas being addressed. (I think about the movie Dune which I didn't have the fortune of seeing in the theater but have read that it came with a glossary of terms for moviegoers – David Lynch expected his audience to do a little research, not force a script on them that explained every little detail). That's my biggest complaint. I think you could edit out 5 to 10 minutes of that explanatory dialogue and have a much tighter and more interesting movie. This new GitS really makes me cherish the subtly of the original.
Labels: Anime, Ghost in the Shell, Logan, science fiction, X-Men