BY JACOB VAN HOUTAN, STAFF WRITER

“Blade Runner 2049” is the highly anticipated sequel to the 1982 film “Blade Runner” starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Gosling plays a Blade Runner, a cop whose job is to chase down and kill replicants, android copies of human beings. He discovers a secret and then searches to find Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford.

“Blade Runner 2049” is an amazing film. Villeneuve is such a talent as a director and has made some truly amazing films like “Prisoners” and “Sicario.” The film is very slow, but Villeneuve plays into that so well and knows how to tell the story without much dialogue. The film is very smart in showing and not telling the character’s motivations. The film is also beautifully shot. Roger Deakins worked as the cinematographer on this film, so I hope that he finally gets his first –and deserved–Oscar.

Gosling’s Blade Runner and is one of the best performances in the film. He plays a very unemotional character, but he is still able to show the audience what he is thinking and feeling with very little expression. Ford is not a huge part in this film, only showing up near the end of the second act, but he still does a good job at being his usual old self. Ana De Armas is also in the film, and she plays the love interest.

However, I found Jared Leto’s performance very off-putting. He was chewing the scenery in a film that clearly didn’t need it. For me, I just thought he was overcooking his performance, and that it just didn’t fit with the rest of the film.

“Blade Runner 2049” is definitely one of the best films I have seen all year. It does retread similar themes found in most science fiction stories about androids, but I found that this film is a worthy successor to the original. The story is very well crafted, and it always keeps you guessing where it is going. It is a little long, clocking in at two hours and 43 minutes, but the slow pace helps to build the tension. The film is also visually stunning to watch in theaters. I highly recommend that, if you can sit down for that long, you should see this movie.

This article first appeared in the Friday, October 13, 2017, Edition of The Echo.