Reviews

Okay, find an old Predator suit, change it a little, write a script that mostly doesn't meld very well with what you've learned from the previous Predator films, add some cheesy CGI and voila, you have this film. I can appreciate the casting decisions but I think they were wasted on this film. The first Predator film is a Sci-Fi classic, the second was entertaining enough to watch, and the rest at least worth a viewing or two, this one has the same feel that the awful 10,000 BC movie had. Watch once then forget.

Had the right ingredients to be good but not the correct proportions. A lot less flash and little more meat to the story and it could have been as good as the trailers said would be.

Like a few others that wrote reviews, I too re-watched the original for about the 50th time just a few hours before going to see this film. This movie has stunning visuals that compliments the original without going overboard with the CGI, wonderful hues that helped differentiate locations that weren't needed in the original film because it was only dark with beacons of neon, or dark and raining with beacons of neon, because it was set in pretty much one general location of the city.

The story expands beyond the city where a replicant Blade Runner with a nomenclature of "K" does what Blade Runners are supposed to do, retire replicants without having any emotions interfering with the task at hand, until a dying replicant cryptically mutters "you've never seen a miracle", that and a out of place item on the ground triggers a search that leads to the bigger story of what happened to Deckard and Rachael and the possible effect of their mysterious departure.

The original Blade Runner set the tone and style for many movies and TV shows that came after it, just like Night of the Living Dead set the tone for almost all zombie movies after it. It was good, dark Sci-Fi without peers when the alternative was buying Reese's Pieces and making jokes about phoning home.

Jared Leto was underused in this movie but adding more screen time for him by cutting scenes may have caused story continuation issues while trying to meld the past to the future, and probably couldn't have been done easily without lengthening the movie considerably, but his character could be central to a potential sequel.

Blade Runner 2049 has a lot more action than the original but it's not a mindless slug/slogfest like so many movies that have little time for storytelling.

One of the small things I did enjoy was a tip of the hat to the scene in the original where Deckard was magnifying the photo of Zhora and the scene in BR2049 when the lab was trying to find a serial number, the flick-flick sound of magnification seem very similar. Also, bringing Edward James Olmos in for a cameo as Gaff and watching him from the waist up, not seeing his hands, but taking an educated guess at what he may be doing, and being half-surprised he's moved up a level from match figures.

The only drawback of seeing a film like this in a theater is you're unable to pause or back it up when something happens that takes a little time fathom or put into context with everything else, just like the original Blade Runner it'll take time and multiple viewings to decipher all you've just seen.

As someone who grew up in the 70's watching crime shows like Kojack, Baretta etc... that were set in NYC you just knew you weren't getting the true eyeful of what was really happening unless you were old enough to see "R" rated movies like Taxi Driver or the French Connection and even then the time constraints of a 2 hour flick only gave a director and crew enough time to flesh out the main character with other characters just being there in a supporting role. The first episode is always the toughest to get into because it takes time to get know who you like and don't like in the ensemble of characters or whether the story will keep you watching future episodes. The first episode starts pretty much as you'd expect with mostly typical stereotypes of what one would imagine Times Square was like in that era with pimps, hookers and wiseguys and a guy who just trying to make a semi-honest living in the morass. After watching the 1st episode I still wasn't sure about how good this could be but after the 2nd you start seeing more pieces coming to play, by the 3rd you could tell it was definitely going to be a good series.

The weaknesses of some characters (like the wiseguys) could be tuned up as the show progresses, just like they get tuned up or deleted on any new show. Some say it mimics other great HBO shows of the past, as if that's a negative. There's a reason many of Hollywood's stars are jumping in and doing these type of shows on streaming and cable, it gives them a chance to flesh out a character over 8-10 hours or more, not just the standard 2 hour "Hurry up and get it done, where's my paycheck, I'll be back for the sequel" mentality.

Yes, there's too much sex, but Times Square didn't become a G-Rated Disney destination because it was the best part of NYC, it's seediness and lack of real estate value is what drew the new commercialization that we see today, something the show starts addressing in the 2nd episode.

When this show arrived last year I was sure it was going to be good, if not great. I like Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy as actors, and Fox having a decent track record of making some good and edgy shows over the last 20 years gave me high expectations of a quality drama. But, by the third episode I was hoping one of the writers/directors/Fox execs would step in and say "This show is ridiculous" and go for a complete re-evaluation. The violence in the show only bothers me because it covers up and tries to distract one from the poor writing. And poor KB and JP having to act through these wretched scripts.

I watched the entire first season hoping against hope for an improvement in the story/writing but never got it.

I could go on and on about many of the implausible scenes that almost seem like they were written for a grade schoolers comic book hobby, but I don't want to think about "The Following" anymore. Bottom line, there are plenty of good dramas out there that can seen for free or on basic cable etc... find them and "follow" them instead.