elisabeth's ramblings about film! Blade Runner 2049

just for fun I've decided I'll do a weekly ramble about a movie I've watched recently. could be a review, rant, praise, trash talk, whatever, enjoy my opinions and feel free to engage in discussion :3

18/12/23 - Blade Runner 2049

obligatory spoiler warning.

I fell in love with the original blade runner film and its sequel did not disappoint. these films have had a singular focus on the theme of humanity and asked "what does it really mean to be human? who can be human?" and this is where 2049 shines. I'm not even sure where to start. 

K's journey in this film was just about perfect for me; from thinking that having a soul came from being born from a parent, to 'finding out' that he had actually been birthed by a replicant, to his heartbreak at finding out he wasn't Deckard's child, and then finally coming full circle to realise that he had had a soul since the start. K was even in the same place, outside the memory lab in the snow, when he first thought his soul theory had been correct in his own experience, and the second time understanding that his theory was wrong and he had a soul anyway. I love a circular narrative and the philosophical discussion behind this sublot gets me going. it was a great supplement to one of the themes in the first film; people have been arguing for decades about whether or not Deckard was/is a replicant, and to that i say it doesn't matter. the point of the story is that our humanity comes from the fact that we decide our own fates and because we can feel, not just because we are born with the genetic code for homo sapiens. (kinda reminds me of the mewtwo quote)

coming off this is another idea of what makes anyone human. both K and Joi are mirrors of 'humans', one being an engineered replicant, the other being an artificial intelligence, but both desire so deeply to be humans, and the irony lies in the fact that this desire IS what makes them and us human. K's flirting with Joi when they talk about genetic symbols - "you're half as much but twice as elegant" - strengthens this. she has half of the building blocks that 'real' humans have and yet in her search for a soul she's become more than any naturally born person could be. other than that if anyone said that to me I think my CPU would short out.

I know the film had so much more to say about feminist topics, and capitalism as cyberpunk always does, but these are just some points that I had a good think about. and it doesn't matter what I think, because one day these thoughts will be gone, like tears in the rain.