CAPTAIN AMERICA : BRAVE NEW WORLD - Tuesday 18th February 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'CAPTAIN AMERICA : BRAVE NEW WORLD' earlier this week, and this American Superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics character Sam Wilson / Captain America, and is the fourth instalment in the 'Captain America' film series, a continuation of the TV miniseries 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' and the 35th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This film is Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Julius Onah in his fourth feature film Directing outing following 'The Girl Is in Trouble' in 2015, 'The Cloverfield Paradox' in 2018, and 'Luce' in 2019. The first three films in the 'Captain America' film franchise - 'Captain America : The First Avenger' in 2011, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' in 2014, and 'Captain America : Civil War' in 2016 grossed US$2,238B at the global Box Office from combined production budgets of US$560M, making this fourth offering a no brainer. That latter film ended the 'Captain America' trilogy starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and Sam Wilson becomes the new Captain America in 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'. This film forms part of Phase Five of the MCU, was released here in Australia and the US last week, has so far grossed US$205M off the back of a US$180M production budget, and has generated mixed or average critical reviews.

The film opens on US Presidential Election night and a triumphant Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) takes the microphone to thank the American people for voting him in, and stating that they can achieve great things 'together'. We then fast track five months and Ross sends Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and Joaquin Torres/Falcon (Danny Ramirez) to Oaxaca, Mexico to thwart the illegal sale of classified items stolen by the Serpent Society, a rogue special-ops team led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). The pair successfully recover the items, but Sidewinder escapes. Following the mission and back on home soil, Wilson and Torres both train with Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a super soldier who was imprisoned and experimented on by the US government for thirty years, and his existence kept a secret, even from the former Captain America.

Ross invites Wilson and Torres to a summit with world leaders at the White House, and Wilson accepts on the condition that Bradley is also invited. Ross asks Wilson to help him reform the Avengers. During the summit, Ross explains that a new metal, adamantium, has been discovered on 'Celestial Island', which was formed when the Celestial Tiamut partially emerged in the Indian Ocean, and was petrified by the Eternals. The recovered items were the first refined samples of the metal and were stolen from a Japanese mining operation. To avoid an arms race, Ross proposes a treaty to govern adamantium's mining and worldwide distribution. As he is talking, the 1959 song 'Mr. Blue' by The Fleetwoods, plays and causes several men, including Bradley, to begin shooting at Ross and other gathered dignitaries. Apprehended by Ross's Security Advisor and former Black Widow Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), the men come to their senses and deny any knowledge of the attack.

While investigating, Wilson is ambushed by Sidewinder. Wilson over powers and captures him. Torres tracks a call on Sidewinder's phone to a hidden black site in West Virginia called Camp Echo One. Ross tries to keep the treaty alive, but the Prime Minister of Japan Ozaki (Takehiro Hira) blames him for the theft of their adamantium and the subsequent White House attack. Ross realises that the mastermind of these events is Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who gained advanced intelligence after being exposed to Bruce Banner's blood during the Abomination's rampage through Harlem. Ross imprisoned Sterns at Camp Echo One, publicly blamed him for the Abomination's actions, and promised to release him if Sterns helped advance him to the presidency. Wilson and Torres find Sterns and learn how he uses technology and the song 'Mr. Blue' as a mind control tool. He escapes while they are fighting mind-controlled soldiers.

Bat-Seraph investigates Camp Echo One herself and helps Wilson and Torres. They meet with Wilson's military friend Dennis Dunphy (William Mark McCullough), who has Sidewinder in custody. Wilson learns enough from Sidewinder to deduce Sterns's plan to destroy Ross's reputation. Wilson, Torres, and Bat-Seraph go to Celestial Island where Ross and the Prime Minister Ozaki are racing to claim ownership of adamantium. 

Sterns controls the minds of two American pilots who attack the Japanese fleet. Wilson and Torres intercept the fighter jets and convince the Japanese to stand down. Torres is shot out of the air and plunges into the Indian Ocean, critically injured. Ross tells Wilson that he is dying of heart failure and had Sterns develop pills that have prolonged his life. Ross refused to release Sterns for fear that he would no longer make the pills, leading to Sterns seeking revenge.

Sterns kills Dunphy, preventing him from calling Wilson and explaining that the pills, taken one at a time three times a day, have been adding gamma radiation to Ross's body. At the hospital, where Wilson is watching on as surgeons restart Torres heart, he is consoled by his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Sterns later surrenders himself to Wilson. During a press conference on the White House Rose Garden, Ross loses control of his emotions and transforms into a red Hulk, and destroys part of the White House. Wilson rushes to stop him. 

Unable to overpower Ross, Wilson attempts to calm him down by reminding him of visits to Washington, D.C.'s cherry blossom trees with his estranged daughter Betty, when she was much younger. The two fight until they can fight no more, and Ross reverts to his normal self. Later, Bradley is exonerated, Wilson invites a recovering Torres to join the Avengers, the treaty is ratified, and work has begun on repairing the damaged White House. Ross resigns and has himself incarcerated at the Raft (an underwater maximum security prison located in the Atlantic Ocean), where Wilson and Betty (Liv Tyler) visit him. 

'Captain America : Brave New World' is an OK entry into the MCU canon - it's not great but it's also not that bad either. Anthony Mackie/Sam Wilson is a more than acceptable replacement for Chris Evans/Steve Rogers even though he is a mere mortal and doesn't posses the super powers that the latter had, but he still has the wings, the suit, the shield and that gadgets that help him get by. Harrison Ford chews up the scenery, especially when he transforms into Red Hulk and looks as though he's having a blast, and there are some parallel's to be drawn here with the current presidential administration too. As for the two villains in the piece - Sidewinder and Sterns, they are largely under utilised and really serve as mere McGuffin's to move the story along. Whilst the action set pieces are well choreographed as we have come to expect from the MCU, the CGI at times leaves much to be desired, especially in the case of the cherry blossom scene in which Cap and Red Hulk go head to head and toe and toe in close quarter combat - so obviously computer generated that the techies must have been asleep at the wheel the day they programmed that sequence! 

'Captain America : Brave New World' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY : Tuesday 4th July 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY' earlier this week. This long awaited and highly anticipated American action adventure film is Co-Written and Directed by James Mangold, whose previous film making credits take in his 1995 debut with 'Heavy' followed by the likes of 'Cop Land' in 1997, 'Girl, Interrupted' in 1999, 'Walk the Line' in 2005, '3:10 to Yuma' in 2007, 'The Wolverine' in 2013, 'Logan' in 2017 and 'Ford v Ferrari' in 2019. This film is the sequel to 2008's 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' and the fifth and final instalment in this five feature film franchise that began in 1981 with 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', then 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom' in 1984 and 1989's 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'. Those first four films grossed worldwide US$1.99B off the back of combined production budgets of US$279M with each of those films being Directed by Steven Spielberg, who this time around takes an Executive Producer credit. With an estimated production budget of approaching US$300M it is the most expensive film in the Indiana Jones franchise, as well as one of the most expensive films ever made. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May where it received a five minute standing ovation, and was released worldwide last week, having so far grossed US$165M and garnered mixed or average reviews.

The film opens in 1944 during the WWII Allied liberation of Europe. Nazis capture Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford in his fifth and final outing as Indy) and Oxford archeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), as they attempt to retrieve the holy Lance of Longinus at Nuremberg Castle - considered to be a most important artifact for Hitler. Astrophysicist Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) informs his Nazi superiors that the Lance is in fact fake, made of an alloy and probably no more than fifty years old, but instead he has found half of Archimedes' Dial, an Antikythera mechanism built by the ancient Syracusan mathematician Archimedes. An astronomical calculator, it leads users to fissures in time. 

Voller's superior scoffs at the importance of the Dial saying that no one has ever heard of it, so how can it be so important. Jones escapes onto a Nazi train filled with a cargo of looted antiquities. He frees Basil and, after fighting Voller on the roof top of the speeding train at which Voller gets knocked off when he stands upright just as the train passes a signal, obtains the Dial-half. He and Basil leap from the train as it passes over a viaduct into the river below, just before the Allies bomb it.

We then fast track twenty-five years later to New York City in 1969. Jones, about to retire from his teaching job at Hunter College where he has been for the past ten years, has also been separated from his wife Marion since their son, Mutt, died in combat in the Vietnam War. Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Jones' goddaughter whom he has not seen for eighteen years, turns up one day unannounced paying him a visit. She is now also an archeologist, and is researching the Dial, but Jones warns how her late father, Basil, nearly went insane after years of trying to unlock its secrets. Basil reluctantly gave Jones the Dial to destroy it, but he never did, instead keeping it safely hidden in the archives of Hunter College. 

As Jones and Helena retrieve the Dial-half from the college's archives, Voller's henchmen attack them. Voller, now works for NASA under a new identity, and is assisted by a CIA group led by Agent Mason (Shaunette Renee Wilson). Unknown to Jones, Helena sells illegal antiquities to the highest bidder. She escapes with the Dial-half, exposing her intention to auction it on the black market in Morocco. Jones flees into a ticker-tape parade celebrating the Apollo 11 astronauts moon landing, and then an anti-Vietnam war protest, before escaping through the New York City Subway system on horseback. He seeks out his old friend Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), now a NYC cab driver. 

In Tangier, Jones prevents Helena from auctioning the Dial-half off to a bunch of would-be purchasers. Voller and his henchmen (Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters and Martin McDougall) arrive and steal the Dial, forcing Jones, Helena, and her teenage sidekick, Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore), to join forces and pursue them in an auto tuk tuk. After a frenetic chase through the side streets and alleyways of Tangier, Agent Mason apprehends Voller, who appears to have his own agenda. The US government, now reject Voller, want him neutralised, but Voller's men kill the CIA agents, including Mason, and steal their helicopter.

Jones, Helena, and Teddy trail Voller to Greece and team up with Jones's deep-sea diver friend, Renaldo (Antonio Banderas). They retrieve a 'graphikos' tablet from an ancient sunken ship in the Aegean Sea, made of wood and coated in wax with ancient inscriptions written upon the wax surface. Jones notices that the tablet is too heavy to be just wood and wax and so burns off the wax revealing a gold dial that contains cryptic directions to the Dial's other half. Voller kills Renaldo and Jones's group escape on board Voller's motorboat and head off to Archimedes's tomb in Sicily.

Inside a meandering cave system, Jones and Helena locate the tomb after negotiating several dangerous and unpleasant obstacles along the way. They uncover Archimedes skeletal remains which is clutching the second half of the Dial and Indy also observes that the skeleton is also holding a present day wrist watch, to which he remarks that timepieces hadn't been invented for another thousand years. Voller and his henchmen meanwhile are in hot pursuit and eventually catch up with Jones and capture him shooting him in the shoulder. Voller then reconnects the two halves of the Dial together and reveals his plan to travel back in time to 1939, to kill Adolf Hitler, and lead Germany to victory in World War II, having witnessed all the mistakes that Hitler made in his war efforts. Voller activates the Dial to open a time fissure and sets a flight course. Jones is held captive and bundled onto a plane, while Helena has sneaked on board by clambering through the landing gear. Meanwhile Teddy steals a light aircraft and pursues them through the opening.

When approaching the eye of the opening the plane begins to rattle, moving objects around uncontrollably. Jones observes this and comments that Voller's plan to land back in 1939 doesn't account for Continental Drift which wouldn't have been factored in when Archimedes lived, and so rather than arriving in 1939, the time fissure instead leads to the 212BC Siege of Syracuse. Roman warriors shoot projectiles at the approaching plane, believing it to be a dragon. Jones and Helena parachute out before it crashes, killing all on board, including Voller. Meanwhile, Teddy's plane lands safely with the aid of the sleeping owner who was woken up by the events unfolding. Helena observes the fissure is closing and urges they leave immediately. Archimedes arrives having seen the parachute, inspects the wreckage and finds Voller's burned and dead body and is captivated by his wristwatch. He gives Jones the Dial but is fascinated by the watch and keeps it. Jones and Helena learn that Archimedes created the Dial solely to bring users from the future to 212BC to aid the Greeks. As the fissure begins collapsing, Helena insists on getting the Hell outta Dodge. Jones, who is wounded, wants to remain behind saying his has nothing to return to, and he has studied this time period all his life. Fearing he may not survive or could change the course of history, Helena knocks him out cold with a single punch.

Jones comes round in his apartment back in 1969 with his shoulder heavily bandaged. He is greeted by Helena, Teddy, Sallah, and also Marion (Karen Allen), who has returned from the shops with bags full of groceries to restock his meagre supplies and to aid in his recovery. Helena, Teddy, Sallah and his two young children leave to go get ice cream, so that Jones and Marion can talk alone, and make up their differences. 

'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' is entertaining enough and you're almost guaranteed a good time at the movies, but it lacks the bravura and the necessary spark that were the touchstones of its four predecessors. Director James Mangold certainly knows how to lay on the action set pieces, but here he lurches from one straight into another, and then another, followed by more of the same without too much regard for the script or exposition. Harrison Ford turns in a fine performance in the titular role, Phoebe Waller-Bridge certainly holds her own and Mads Mikkelsen as the antagonist of the piece is as menacing as he ever was albeit in an understated way. It is a fitting end to this movie franchise which has given us one of the most endearing screen characters of the last forty or so years that sees Indy and Marion reconcile and finally settle into their retirement. Amen to that!

'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

APOCALYPSE NOW : FINAL CUT - Friday 26th July 2019.

'APOCALYPSE NOW : FINAL CUT' which I saw late last week is rated MA15+, and this 1979 and now a classic American epic war film about the Vietnam War was Directed, Produced and Co-Written by Francis Ford Coppola and now gets it's 40th anniversary re-release in the manner that Coppola had seemingly always intended. Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Harrison Ford, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Scott Glenn and Dennis Hopper with the Screenplay, Co-Written by Coppola and John Milius was loosely based on the 1899 novella 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad. 'Apocalypse Now' was honoured with the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered unfinished before it was finally released on August 15, 1979. The film is today considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for eight Oscars at the 52nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Duvall, and went on to win for Best Cinematography and Best Sound among its total awards haul of twenty wins and another 31 nominations. The film took US$150M at the global Box Office off the back of a US$32M Budget. With a running time of 183 minutes, backed up by a 4k restoration and all the technological advancements in sound design, Coppola reportedly said that it now 'looks better than it has ever looked, and sounds better than it has ever sounded', and that he's 'thrilled beyond measure to present the best version of the film to the world.' 

In Vietnam in 1969, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) a veteran U.S. Army special operations officer is sitting in his Saigon hotel room locked up and gradually going insane without a mission to satisfy his hunger to be on the front line. He drinks and smokes heavily and sleeps for days on end reminiscing about his former marriage, his previous tours of duty, the stupefying heat of Vietnam and the sheer boredom of being holed up in the confines of his hotel room. Then there is a knock on the door. With his hand bleeding profusely from where he smashed a plate glass mirror and drunk too, he is manhandled into a cold shower by the two officers who came knocking. Next up he is in a room with Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford), Lieutenant General Corman (G.D. Spradlin) and a plain clothed mystery man Jerry (Jerry Ziesmer). They have a mission for Willard - to head up river into Cambodia and 'terminate with extreme prejudice' the highly decorated United States Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone rogue and supposedly completely insane at an outpost in Cambodia, is running his own military unit based there and is feared as much by the U.S. military as by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.

Willard with little choice but to accept the mission, joins a Navy River Patrol Boat crew captained by Chief Petty Officer George 'Chief' Phillips (Albert Hall) with young crewmen Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Lance B. Johnson (Sam Bottoms) a former professional surfer from Orange County; Engineman 3rd Class Jay 'Chef' Hicks (Frederick Forrest), a former chef from New Orleans; and Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Tyrone 'Mr. Clean' Miller (Laurence Fishburne), a seventeen-year-old street smart South Bronx-born crew member.

They rendezvous with seemingly fearless and mad keen surfing enthusiast Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment commander, to discuss going up the Nung River. Kilgore is at first offhandish but befriends Lance after discovering he is a famous surfer and agrees to escort them through the Nung's Viet Cong-held coastal mouth which is tidal and the lads can get in a long overdue surf. The helicopter squadron raids at dawn, with Kilgore ordering a napalm strike on the local hostiles practically wiping them all out but not without suffering casualties also, and at the same time muttering those immortal words 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning'.

As Willard continues the journey up river studying the extensive dossier he has on Kurtz, he learns that a Captain Richard Colby (Scott Glenn) was previously assigned Willard's current mission before he defected to Kurtz's private army and sent a message to his wife, intercepted by the U.S. Army, telling her that he was never coming back and to sell everything they owned. As the crew read letters from home, Lance activates a smoke grenade, attracting the attention of an enemy hiding in the dense undergrowth along the riverbank, and Mr. Clean is shot dead. Further upriver, Chief is impaled by a spear thrown by the natives and killed too. Willard reveals the purpose of their mission to Chef, and in spite of Chef's anger towards their end game, he rejects Willard's offer for him to continue alone and insists that they complete the mission together.

Continuing along their journey, the remaining crew members come across a French family holed up on their remote rubber plantation living the colonial lifestyle, and they spend the night having been welcomed by their well to do hosts dining on good food, fine wine, cognac and cigars. The next day the crew arrives at Kurtz's outpost, and the surviving crew are greeted by an American freelance photojournalist (Dennis Hopper), who crazily praises Kurtz's genius. As they wander through the camp, they come across a near-comatose Colby, along with other US servicemen now in Kurtz's renegade army. Learning that Kurtz is not at the camp at that time, Willard returns to the boat later taking Lance with him back to the camp and instructing Chef to stay behind and call in an air strike of the compound if they do not return within a certain time.

After Willard's initial introduction to Kurtz in a darkened temple he is subdued, bound and then tortured and imprisoned for several days during which time Kurtz drops Chefs severed head into the lap of Willard while he is tied up. Willard is subsequently released and allowed to freely roam the compound. Kurtz lectures him on his theories of war, the human psyche and civilisation, while praising the ruthlessness and dedication of the Viet Cong. 

That night, as the locals ceremonially slaughter a water buffalo, Willard stealthily enters Kurtz's chamber as he is making a recording and attacks him with a machete. Mortally wounded, Kurtz utters 'The horror, The horror' and dies. As the sun rises all in the compound see Willard departing the temple covered in blood spatter, carrying a collection of Kurtz's writings, and bow down to him. Willard then leads Lance to the boat and they depart unhindered.

The original shoot for 'Apocalypse Now' was fraught with challenges, including Marlon Brando arriving on set completely unprepared and overweight; entire sets being wiped out by Typhoon Olga in May 1976; Martin Sheen suffering a mental breakdown and a near fatal heart attack whilst on location; a production schedule that was due to last five months ran to over a year; the initial budget estimations of US$15M blowing out to closer to US$32M; the entire payroll being stolen overnight whilst under the watchful eye of bodyguards; and the final release of the film being delayed several times while Coppola edited over one million feet of film. All of that said, these challenges faced now over forty years ago will have dimmed into the far recesses of cinematic history and gave way ultimately to a classic Vietnam War film that has stood the test of time in all its visceral, hallucinatory, surreal and at times bizarre glory. The original film had a running time of 153 minutes, 2001's 'Apocalypse Now Redux' ran for 202 minutes and this version 'Apocalypse New : Final Cut' has a running time of 183 minutes and has been remastered frame by frame in stunning 4K quality, with the sound production enhanced by Dolby Atmos. This is the complete package and deserves to be either revisited or viewed for the first time on the big screen while you still can in selected theatres - you won't be disappointed by the experience as a chance to see one of the greatest films of all time just as Coppola had originally intended.

'Apocalypse Now : Final Cut' merits five claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BLADE RUNNER 2049 : Tuesday 10th October 2017

'BLADE RUNNER 2049' which I caught earlier in the week in 3D, is released 35 years after the original neo-noir Sci-Fi film 'Blade Runner' as Directed by Ridley Scott which upon release polarised critical opinion and took lacklustre Box Office takings of just US$34M from its US$28M production budget. Here then, and finally, we have the long awaited, eagerly anticipated, much hyped sequel, set thirty years after that first film. The intervening years have been kind to the original movie, now elevated to cult status with many Critics hailing the film as one of the best all time Science Fiction movies, also bringing to prominence the work of Philip K. Dick upon whose book 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' the film is loosely based. Starring Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah and M. Emmet Walsh, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards, one Golden Globe, won three BAFTA's and was nominated for a further five amongst its total haul of eleven wins and eighteen nominations. Set in a dystopian Los Angeles in 2019, 'Blade Runner' depicts a future in which bioengineered androids known as 'Replicants' are manufactured by a powerful company to work on off-world colonies. When a renegade group of Replicants led by Roy Batty escape back to Earth in an attempt to prolong their lives, burnt-out LA cop Rick Deckard reluctantly agrees to one last assignment to hunt them down and 'retire' them.

And so this film, which has been in development for approaching twenty years with Ridley Scott on again off again and various storylines coming and going, has finally landed with Director Denis Villeneuve at the helm, Roger Deakins on Cinematographer duty and Harrison Ford reprising his role as Rick Deckard all for a production budget of somewhere in the vicinity of US$175M. Released in the US and Australia last week, the film has so far taken US$93M at the Box Office and early Reviews of the film have met with widespread universal acclaim, with many Critics gushing about the production values, cinematography, CGI, music score, and performances of the principal cast.

Set in a dystopian Los Angeles of 2049, thirty years following the events of the original film, bioengineered humans called 'Replicants' have now been integrated into Earth's general population. Working for the LAPD, K (Ryan Gosling) a more up to date model who is programmed to obey orders and works as a Blade Runner, whose purpose is to hunt down older rogue Replicants and 'retire' them from service.

As the film opens we see K descending in his vehicle on what appears to be a farm where he 'retires' Sapper Morton (Dave Bautista) the farmer breeding synthetic protein maggots on a large scale. There, buried under a large dead tree, he discovers a military strong box which is taken back to LAPD for analysis. Inside there are human remains - carefully preserved bones and hair. Forensics reveal that the remains are of a female Replicant who died from complications from what appears to be an emergency Caesarian Section operation. Further examination reveals a tiny serial number engraved on a bone, revealing this to be definite Replicant remains. K is perplexed as pregnancy amongst Replicants was always believed to be impossible. Later, K returns to the farm for further examination. At the base of the tree he uncovers an engraving of a date which seems to correspond with a date in his own childhood memory about a hand engraved wooden horse which he hid in a redundant incinerator in the orphanage in which he was raised. Before leaving the farm, he torches it, destroying all evidence from those that might come afterwards.

Meanwhile K is ordered to destroy all evidence in relation to this case before word gets out, by his commanding officer Lieutenant Joshi (Robin Wright). She holds the belief that knowledge of Replicants being able to reproduce is dangerous to the new world order and could potentially incite war. K does not necessarily subscribe to this point of view, but he goes along with it. He visits the Headquarters of Replicant manufacturer Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) and is introduced to his Replicant Assistant Luv (Sylvia Hoeks) who helps him identify the body as Rachael, an experimental older model Replicant, but history is scant given the thirty years or so that have lapsed. There is a brief recorded transcript of a former Blade Runner Rick Deckard and Rachael, from which K deduces there was some romantic interest. Wallace who wants Rachels remains for his own analysis, orders Luv to steal the remains from LAPD and follow K as he goes in search of the child, from which he can then engineer Replicant reproduction for the expansion of his off-world operations beyond the nine worlds he currently inhabits.

K visits the orphanage in old Los Angeles where the child is thought to have been raised. There he meets Mister Cotton (Lennie James) who presides over hordes of young orphaned kids whom he sets to work stripping down electrical appliances for spare parts and salvage to sell. There his childhood memory comes rushing back, and searching the incinerator he finds his carefully wrapped up wooden horse, implying that his memory is in fact real, whereas all along he had believed these to be implants. While searching through the birth records for that year (2021) with his holographic female companion Joi (Ana de Armas) he comes across an anomaly in that twins were born that day with identical DNA except for the sex chromosome, but only the boy is listed as being still alive.

K seeks out Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri) a prominent memory designer who advises him that it is illegal to programme Replicants with real human memories, leading K to deduce that he is in fact Rachel's son. K has the wooden horse analysed by Doc Badger (Barkhad Abdi) who finds traces of radiation that lead him to the apocalyptic landscape of old Los Angeles.

There he locates Deckard living the lonely life in an abandoned casino with nothing but books, Whisky and a loyal dog (real or otherwise) to occupy his time. Deckard tells K that he was forced to muddle up the birth records and was forced to leave a pregnant Rachel with the Replicant Freedom Movement to protect both her and their unborn child.

Luv arrives with several henchmen, having tracked K with a homing device planted in his pocket, and having previously killed Lieutenant Joshi. They intend to take Deckard hostage, who has being lying very low for the past thirty years, in the belief that he will lead them to his child to allow Wallace to engineer reproductive Replicants. Deckard and K put up a fight but are no match for the high tech fire power of Luv and her men.

They cart off Deckard, leaving K for dead only for him to be rescued by the Replicant Freedom Movement who take him to their safe house and nurse him back to some semblance of health and strength. Their leader Freysa (Hiam Abbass) tells K that Deckard's child is a girl, shattering K's hopes that he was their child. From this news K surmises that Ana Stelline must be Deckard's daughter given her abilities with implanting the memory into him. Freysa's instructions to K are to prevent Wallace from getting even remotely close to discovering the secrets of Replicant reproduction, by all and any means possible, even if it means taking out Deckard!

Deckard comes around in Wallace's plush HQ surroundings and refuses to co-operate with him, even when prompted to do so by a Replicant duplication of Rachael, which he dismisses because of her eye colour not being of her original green. Luv transports Deckard to one of Wallace's off world colony's to be interrogated and tortured for information that will lead Wallace to his child's whereabouts, even though Deckard really has no clue. K intercepts their fleet of three vehicles bringing down two security vehicles in a blaze of fire and smoke and forcing Luv's vehicle to crash land at the base of a dam, about to release a torrent water supply. Deckard is shackled to his seat while K and Luv fight it out in the rapidly rising waters. Ultimately K overcomes Luv and kills her, allowing Deckard and K to swim to safety. K says that he will report that Deckard drowned in the vehicle so safeguarding him from Wallace and other no good Replicants. K accompanies Deckard to Stelline's laboratory offices to meet his daughter. As Deckard gingerly enters and sees his daughter for the first time, a badly injured K waits outside reclining on the steps in the falling snow looking up.

I liked 'Blade Runner 2049' a lot! The film retains the all the touchstones that made the 1982 film such a classic, and expands upon them without diluting any of what has gone before. It both compliments the earlier film, and stands alone in its own right, and as a companion piece it has the continuity that melds the two films together from the giant neon advertising billboards promoting now defunct organisations 'Atari' and 'PanAm'; through to the Origami paper folding of Gaff (Edward James Olmos who reprises his role very briefly); through to recollections of Rachael. The film is visually stunning down to the smallest details, and the CGI enhances the already solidly smart storyline with visions of a dystopian neon lit, hologram filled future Los Angeles (where it now snows); an apocalyptic garbage dump wasteland that is San Diego; and all the future world gadgets, gizmo's, tech and Sci-Fi notions that you can imagine. A worthy sequel that Villeneuve has made worth waiting for, that will quickly become the cult classic that its predecessor has long since done so, with gritty and convincing performances from its cast, and top notch production values throughout. At a running time of over two and half hours, the film does not outstay its welcome, although it must be said that 'Blade Runner : The Final Cut' has a running time of under two hours.  Earlier this month Villeneuve reportedly said that a third film may be made if '2049' proved a success, and Ford commented that he would be happy to reprise his role if the script added up. Watch this space!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-