My personal favorite movie of the last decade was Denis Villenueve’s Blade Runner 2049. The film reaped $92.1 million domestically and $168 million abroad for a grand total of $260 million. At a glance these numbers might seem fine but the production was costly and the studio didn’t even break even with their endeavor, losing more than $80 million on the project. I truly believe that Blade Runner 2049 is a masterpiece of both visual and written storytelling but it would seem that audiences didn’t agree. Compare that to the profits Disney was able to reap off of the bloated nightmare that was The Rise of Skywalker (I know I professed my love for the Star Wars series earlier on in the class but this excludes the abomination that it the most recent trilogy). TROS made $515 million domestically and $558 million abroad capitalizing on Star Wars nostalgia to the tune of a $300 million net profit. I think this sheds light on a huge problem in Hollywood, that they will almost always go with the safe bet. A stylistic narrative like Blade Runner 2049 that explores themes of what it means to be human, to be alive, cannot compete with the bleak spectacles put out by JJ Abrams and his ilk.
The critics and audiences seem split on Blade Runner 2049. AO Scott of the NYT praised Villeneuve’s ingenuity and creativity in creating an “unnerving calm” in the movie that culminates in a storm. Mike LaSalle of the SF Chronicle called it one of the greatest films of our time. When looking at audience reviews there seems to be a consensus that it was too long and didn’t have enough action and explosions to keep their attention.
An element that I love about Blade Runner 2049 is the color of the movie. Roger Deakins the cinematographer takes a bleak futuristic world and instead of making it gray and boring injects brilliant orange and blue palettes that make the film absolutely breathtaking to view. Especially the sequence where K finds Deckard hiding out in the ruins of Las Vegas, the orange motif makes us feel we’re in some radioactive decaying Salvador Dali painting waiting to slide off the screen.