Blade Runner 2049 Review

Posted on by
Reply

This review is of the edited TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

Uh oh, Blade Runner’s back! This series has to be one of the biggest missed opportunities in all of cinema. How do you mess up a future setting filled with androids that look like humans and corporate finally taking over the world? Well you do it by not exploring any of the fun aspects of this and instead dragging out every scene as long as possible. There are so many scenes that are just quiet as we get a lingering shot of the sky or the city. I know they want to show off the special effects but the plot grinds to a standstill way too often.

The story starts off decently enough as we see K enter a guy’s home and murder him. He’s basically an enforcer for corporate whose mission is to destroy old replicant versions. The ones that can no longer be trusted and are out of date. He’s very good at his job, in fact many would say that he is the best. The guy doesn’t fail and he never lets his emotions get the better of him. That being said, this next mission is a little different. He is tasked with murdering a replicant that was born from another which should be impossible since they aren’t fully human. Additionally K has mixed feelings about this because that could imply that this person has a soul. Can he go through with this mission or is it time to resist against the system?

Since there are more negatives than positives let me go through the good first. One of the villains is an android named Luv who actually makes for a very imposing villain. She’s a strong fighter and is quite ruthless. Her emotionless demeanor holds for most of the film although she does not like to have competition so she has a personal vendetta against K which appears later on. She gets sloppy towards the end but was otherwise a very intense killing machine that fits in with this Terminator kind of future.

In general the fights could also be good. At times not as good as possible when it just resorts to who can hold a choke hold the longest, but when there’s an actual fight then it can be enjoyable. For example there’s one scene where K’s ship is downed by a group of rebels and instead of meekly falling to the ground like most protagonists he just breaks the first guy and starts shooting. As I always say, if you’re likely going to be murdered anyway, at least go down with a fight!

The other positive I can say is there are some nice visuals here. The shots of the city actually do look nice and you could appreciate them more if they weren’t so dragged out. Likewise there are some good bits of dialogue and the idea of deciding what line you won’t cross as a contracted killer is always an interesting one. More so when you aren’t even sure if you can truly defy your programming.

The main problem with the film is in the execution. I’ve already talked about how everything is super dragged out and I’d say it’s because this movie has enough plot to probably fill 30 minutes easily and then you have a lot of fluff here. I believe the reason is that the film was trying to pack in a lot of lore and world building so you can understand what kind of world this is but that’s just not needed. You already understand it pretty well from the opening scene as well as the intro explaining what is happening.

Blade Runner also relies quite a bit on fanservice throughout the film in the most random of scenes. We see the process of creating an android which is shown in the most disturbing way possible while still keeping in fanservice. It’s to show you that Wallace is completely insane and one of those guys who lost all of his morality a long time ago. We could have basically guessed that though without that super long scene. Seriously that scene was really long and you can just tell us he’s evil without having such a long moment about it. This came in fairly early into the film to really make sure things didn’t get off on the right foot.

I would have probably just cut him out of the film entirely to be honest. You don’t need a specific main villain for this kind of film. A board of directors or something would work just as well and they still send Luv out to take K down once and for all before finishing the mission. They’re looking at this as cold hard calculated facts so you don’t even need an over the top evil villain at all. If anything it oversimplifies things by giving you a concrete main villain instead of reminding you that the whole society is crazy by this point.

Then you have the romance of sorts with K and the holographic figure known as Joi. Now how much you buy into this romance will depend on just how real you think Joi is. It’s established that even this deep into the future the robots don’t have souls yet which is why the situation of an android kid is such a big deal. At the same time, is he really hurting anyone by falling in love with a program? Even in real life you’re seeing that and well..it’s definitely something. I don’t think the plotline itself is awful but the romance is very cringe and drawn out the whole time.

I could definitely do without all those scenes. If you’re going to go through with the A.I. fantasy then I think giving her more of a solid personality beyond just being his love interest would certainly help. She literally does feel like she was just created to suit his needs which is basically what happened so without more depth then that’s it. She does obviously care about him and wants to help but it’s all programming.

This doesn’t do K any favors either since it makes him look really desperate. He was also a full villain for most of the film as he carries out his orders without thinking about the morality of it. You can understand this based on his origin but the whole time you’re still waiting for him to turn good and it sure takes a while. The only character who acts like a hero from the jump is Deckard and it takes him way longer to appear than I thought. He was a fairly big deal in the promotions and everything since people were looking forward to seeing him. I think he would have personally worked a lot better in this film as the lead compared to K. K’s great for the fight scenes but it’s not like he’s a great character either.

If the film could focus more instead of going for all the shock value then I think you could have a lot of promise here. The film just gets really gritty at times like with Wallace’s first scene and then it drags on a lot during others. So what you have here is a lot of time not really spent on advancing the story. If you want to make this a slow boil event then you need to really focus on the philosophical aspect more like K wondering if he’s a real person or not. Having to wonder if you’re an organic life form or fully robotic is an interesting angle and of course the whole conversation about having a soul.

These plots are all handled better in other mediums though. Also, as was one of my complaints in the first film, the movie doesn’t make the most of the Sci-Fi backdrop. Sure we do get more this time like flying cars and sci-fi projectors but a good portion of the film takes place in old locations like a small hotel, inside the compound, or abandoned forest areas. The main guy has a basic gun and a flying car but we’re still not seeing as much as you would expect from 2049. In movie-land I should say. In the real world I don’t think things are going to particularly look all that different 20 years from now.

Overall, Blade Runner 2049 serves as a warning bell for when robots take over the Earth and wipe us out. That said, you can see this message much more effectively by watching the Terminator films or the CGI Blame! film. Those titles are way more direct about it and also balance the action and warning tones a lot better. This one’s just way too drawn out to have an effective message and is focused on the wrong things. I couldn’t possibly imagine re watching this one and the negative moments severely overpower the positive stuff. That’s really the movie’s biggest problem. Perhaps the third film can change things but I have my doubts.

Overall 1/10

Takashi Natsume vs Nemo

Posted on by
Reply



Takashi Natsume isn’t really someone who likes to fight but when the going gets tough he will definitely show up. His punches tend to really deal a whole lot of damage. Nemo is a quick little fighter but doesn’t have much durability so a single punch will end this. Meanwhile Nemo would need to land a ton of hits just to deal some basic damage. Takashi Natsume wins.

The Curious Cat vs Billy Lee

Posted on by



The Curious Cat is a very talented fighter who has a lot more raw power than Billy does. Now it’s probably reasonable to say that Billy still has the edge in pure martial arts. I think that would be very fair to be honest but at the same time I still don’t see him winning this round. When he gets in close to land some combos, The Curious Cat can endure them for quite a while when all he needs is one clean counter hit and that would end the match. There really isn’t any coming back from that. The Curious Cat wins.

Katsura vs Cosmo Kramer

Posted on by
Reply



Cosmo Kramer may be good at acting on the spur of the moment and coming up with plans but he’s not taking Katsura out. Katsura is probably even better at being absurd than Kramer is. Kramer just won’t be able to keep up with this guy’s nonsense which in the end will definitely put Cosmo on the losing side. Katsura can also actually fight and Cosmo cannot so that should be taken into account too. Katsura wins.

Tatsumi Tatsunami vs Luke Hobbs

Posted on by
Reply



Luke Hobbs is a very strong guy. Some would say that he’s basically superhuman in terms of strength at this point and it’s hard to go against that. Still, Tatsumi Tatsunami has abilities that are also beyond any normal humans. He can also extend his arm to increase the range of his attacks. Tatsumi even goes up against alien fighters. Luke isn’t quite pulling that off yet and as good as his car skills are, this is where it all ends for him. Tatsumi Tatsunami wins.

Cha Hae In vs Veyle

Posted on by



Veyle may have a lot of good spells at the ready but Cha is a speed fighter who can really hold her own. She should be able to dodge those spells easily enough. Veyle can fight well in close quarters but it isn’t exactly her forte and Cha basically surpasses her in all of the relevant stats. Without a way to keep up Veyle will ultimately go down here. Cha Hae In wins.

Beru vs Eight

Posted on by
Reply



Eight is a powerful fighter and as one of the Dragon Quest leads you already know that he’s packing some serious ability. That being said, I don’t see him keeping up with Beru’s incredible speed. The creature would have already gone way past Eight before the guy could even hope to respond. That level of power is really just crazy to deal with and I dare say Eight wouldn’t last a minute. Beru wins.

Noah Diaz vs Veyle

Posted on by



Noah Diaz has returned but this time he’s fighting a mage of immense power. Veyle may have lost sight of herself for a while there but she never lost her skills. With her various magics there isn’t much Noah can do. He’s not fast enough to dodge her attacks and would quickly get decimated in close quarters combat as his armor can’t block her blades. Veyle wins.

Bomberman Tournament Review

Posted on by
Reply


Bomberman has returned for his next adventure! When playing through the story mode you’ll probably be wondering why this is called “Tournament” but it does have a multiplayer mode and there are some optional tournaments you can enter with the creatures so I guess that’ll do. Personally I’d say it is a bit of an untapped resource here since there’s a lot you could do with the whole Pokemon homage. As it stands you only have 2 mandatory fights in the whole game.

The basic plot is that Max has gone missing and now the Dastardly Bombers are running around causing trouble. Bomberman is called in to take these guys down once and for all. Let me tell you, this guy is absolutely ready for action and won’t be taking prisoners. Does he have the bombs needed to blow up all of the enemies around him or is he quickly going to find out the limits of his own abilities? One thing’s for sure, they never should have messed with Bomberman’s planet!

The gameplay is your classic Bomberman style to an extent with a few extra additions. You use bombs to clear out debris and enemies as you try to get to the goal. During a boss fight you use the bombs strategically to box the enemy in and land some serious damage. Where it’s a bit different here is the game’s part RPG style so you actually capture a lot of Pokemon (Karabon, but it’s so similar I’m just going to call them Pokemon) and they have special abilities. Things like kicking the bombs, throwing them, moving through walls, etc. It’s a pretty interesting way to add some depth to the gameplay although the only mild annoyance is to switch your equipped Pokemon (You can only have 1 equipped at a time) you have to go into the start menu and switch through some tabs. Like I said, not the most convenient option for sure.

Some abilities are permanent at least so you don’t need the Pokemon equipped. Another benefit to having one equipped is that any items you find along the map are automatically added to that creature’s level. You’ll see a lot of attack, defense, and special point boosts. They all go to the one you have equipped and so if you have none equipped then they are just wasted. There are tons of these everywhere so you don’t need to go out of your way to grind them. You’ll get the power ups fairly quick, trust me on that. I didn’t focus on this and I still won my two matches rather quickly.

There are also a small handful of minigames in the story but only like 2-3 so you can easily forget that they’re even a thing here. It was still nice to see though. So the game gets props for having a lot of different gameplay styles in the mix. I also think it tried a little harder to have a grand story as it’s all played fairly serious and the villain designs were on point. It’s a lot older so there isn’t any voice acting or any of that but the story’s on point.

The graphics could stand to be a little more detailed but they work well enough. You can always follow the action of what’s happening here. The ost is also surprisingly good, there are actually a number of solid songs as you go through the levels. That’s also good because it’s a fairly small soundtrack so you need to prepare to hear each song quite a few times. The story I’d say is probably like 4-5 hours give or take. It took me longer than expected mainly because I happened to bump into a game ending glitch in the first world. The character just would not let me heal the Pokemon to continue. I had to replay the world 2 more times after the initial playthrough before it finally worked. I still don’t know what the problem was but in the end I just followed a video walkthrough for that level exactly. I must have been doing something in the wrong order but it was definitely a bit of a bizarre glitch.

Well, glitches can happen anywhere I suppose. On the whole the game is still fun enough where you will have a good time. You are rewarded as you play through by getting stronger and stronger. It’d be nice if more of the secret caves had nice stuff in them though. Half the time it’s an NPC just telling you basic information and you wonder why they were hidden. Give me more power ups and hearts. The game isn’t a cakewalk but it’s not too difficult so you should have a smooth time even without a lot of the bonus hearts to help you out with. Always keep a potion on hand just in case you need it.

For the most part you’ll find most of the collectibles just while playing normally anyway. Each world doesn’t trigger its story until you talk to someone so to be on the safe side I always talked with everyone in every village so you end up grabbing everything else too. My main advice in the gameplay/boss battles is to run and gun. Constantly throw out as many bombs as possible behind you and that should help give you the edge in combat. Bomberman veterans will really know how to trap the opponent right away but I’m definitely more casual. So I find the best way is to just throw out a lot of bombs and eventually you will hit the opponent. Just make sure you don’t get hit too because your own bombs do 2 hearts worth of damage to you.

Overall, Bomberman Tournament is a pretty fun game. The Pokemon addition is pretty fun but the battles feel like a missed opportunity since they weren’t incorporated into the story all that much. Additionally there is no gameplay in those as you’re just watching the characters fight each other. I definitely would have changed that up a bit to have active gameplay in the mix as well. It would make the fighting feel more engaging and would encourage you to level them up. Instead it’s basically full RNG which isn’t quite as satisfying. You are playing for the bomb gameplay first and foremost though and that is as smooth as can be. The Bomberman series definitely understands how to pull that off without a hitch by this point.

Overall 7/10

Igris vs Alear

Posted on by
Reply



Alear is a strong fighter with really good close quarter skills. Still, she won’t be able to react to an opponent with this level of power. Igris continued to get stronger throughout Solo Leveling and his sword would likely break right through her weapons. She doesn’t have the durability to endure any direct shots here so she would ultimately go down. Igris wins.