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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-05-2017 10:35 PM
After “retiring” an earlier and illegal model, replicant Blade Runner K. makes a startling discovery that the LAPD needs kept under wraps, but it’s also a discovery that causes him to question everything he knows about himself. In Dolby Vision at the AMC Garden State Theaters, Paramus, New Jersey.
*****
It turns out Rachael, the late-model replicant that Blade Runner Deckard fell for in the original picture, was even more sophisticated than Dr. Eldon Tyrell let on. She had in fact a first-of-her-kind ability, and what she wound up doing (or rather what she and Deckard wound up doing together) after they split L.A. is now thirty years later a serious problem for both the LAPD and the Wallace Corporation, the company that now makes more tractable replicants and who would like nothing better than to see the last of the original models retired forever. “If this gets out, it blows up the world,” says the hard-assed chief of police played by Robin Wright. But the investigation into these matters turns into a serious existential issue for Officer K., another replicant who winds up questioning where he fits into the puzzle of Rachael and Deckard.
Like the first film, Blade Runner 2049 is an amazing visual experience, the cinematography and effects work being top-notch. But at the same time, like the earlier picture, there is no-one to really feel any empathy for with the exception of Harrison Ford’s Deckard, who shows up pretty late in the film (and yeah, Sean Young shows up too, sort of). It’s a dismal thing too, L.A. is rendered even more shabby and garish than before, and it’s still pitch black and pouring rain as well, truly a future that nobody would want to live in. Still, for a nearly three hour movie, it moves right along and is consistently interesting, and like before the production design and art direction are outstanding. I also appreciated how the audience is led to believe that they have figured out where “K.” fits into the story, which may or may not be correct.
In all, not necessarily a better movie than the original, but a pretty good sequel and a very good science fiction movie in its own right.
I might add that the Dolby Vision version of this film that played at the AMC Garden State 16 had some serious issues with low-level detail. I am not familiar with how the encoding of Dolby Vision works or if there is any compression involved, but in some scenes the blacks were really crushed and exhibited the sort of "black pooling" effect that is usually associated with bad cable TV compression.
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Sam Graham
AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues.
Posts: 1431
From: Waukee, IA
Registered: Dec 2004
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posted 10-06-2017 02:52 PM
CINEMA: Regal Warren East, Wichita KS
AUDITORIUM: 14
PRESENTATION: Warren GRAND slope auditorium with Regal Roller Coaster Vision Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Chatty seat kicker behind me
RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)
THE PLOT: A replicant replicates. Wackiness ensues.
If you're going to see this, take a nap first. Then drink about six cups of coffee. Then buy the biggest caffeinated cola the snack bar sells, the one with the refill. Okay! Now you're ready to be bored out of your mind while watching super impressive visuals.
Thing is, there's a pretty decent story here, but it takes forever to get through. They could have easily told this story in 100 minutes. A guy having an animated discussion with a complete stranger in the lobby after went over a number of things in the movie that were pointless and a complete waste of time based on the ending.
And about that ending, some comments from the audience...
Seat kicker behind me when the credits started: "WHAT???"
Some other guy in the back: "Well that was...different..."
Guy in the lobby when asked how the movie was: "Uh,,,"
I'm sure fans of the original who are absurdly into sci-fi will enjoy it.
Not sure who else will.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 10-08-2017 05:09 PM
quote: Mark Ogden
I might add that the Dolby Vision version of this film that played at the AMC Garden State 16 had some serious issues with low-level detail. I am not familiar with how the encoding of Dolby Vision works or if there is any compression involved, but in some scenes the blacks were really crushed and exhibited the sort of "black pooling" effect that is usually associated with bad cable TV compression.
DCI always uses compression. Every frame is independently compressed using JPEG2000 compression. Still, it does not explain what you've seen.
Dolby Vision in DCI, uses the same 12-bit per channels normal DCI does, but they apply their own magic sauce to those, to map them into the Dolby Vision color space. The concept is similar to HLG, where a logarithmic gamma function is used to squeeze a broader range of luminance into the same 8 bits per channel.
As far as I know, the Dolby Cinema system is not capable of reliably detecting Dolby Vision content automatically yet and has to be switched into the corresponding color space via a macro. So, maybe they did set the macro, but programmed the wrong, DCI-color graded CPL, instead of the Dolby Vision graded one.
In that case, those blacks could have become over-exposed and showing JPEG2000 banding and compression artifacts, which would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
PS: I've also seen it in Dolby Vision, but I did not see any such artifacts.
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Mitchell Dvoskin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1869
From: West Milford, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 10-09-2017 04:26 PM
Theatre: Lafayette (Suffern NY)
Picture: Ok, but no top/bottom masking for the scope picture. This is especially annoying as I know the theatre has the masking. Apparently, it was too much trouble to change the masking from the 1.85 commercials to 2.39 feature.
Sound: No audible surround sound. The theatre does not have ATMOS, but no 5.1/7.1 surround sound? Maybe they were too lazy to turn the amp on.
The Film: As a fan of the original I liked this one, but I have to admit that it is overly slow and ponderous. I could have edited this down to under 2 hours, and it would have been a better film.
Biggest Complaints:
- At the start of the end credits, the theatre turned on the super bright work lights, which were aimed at the screen.
- Did not use the top/bottom masking.
- Sticky floors, first show of the day.
- Day old pop corn.
- Cleaning the auditorium before the credits ended.
My first trip to this theatre under the current management. My takeaway is that I need to find what I did with my Kodi box and hook it up again. If this is what going out to first run movies has come to, I might as well stay home.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 10-11-2017 04:47 AM
quote: Jim Cassedy
I regularly mix different aspect ratios & formats in a playlist, without using
any format cues, and I've never seen the system I work with fail to put the
proper image on screen. I've been informed that's the way it SHOULD work.
The Dolby Cinema setups I've seen all seem to have a bit of a hard time to get their automation working fluidly, especially in case of a 3D show.
For whatever reason, the dowser is being closed and reopened after every clip they play in the preshow. For normal 2D shows, this is not an issue, but during a 3D show, the dowsers of the two projectors close and open with a delay of about a second and a half apart from each other. This is a pretty irritating sensation, because it feels like closing one of your eyes, only you didn't remember doing it.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 10-11-2017 08:50 AM
I've seen the movie twice now and I wanted to withhold my first judgement about it until then. I never consider my judgement regarding a film as final though.
As many others, who are a fan of the original, I've been pretty reluctant about a sequel to this decades old classic. The amount of quality sequels, prequels, reboots and origin stories has vastly been outpaced by utter garbage, so I went into this with very low expectations. I also decided not to read a single review, other than what was presented to me in the trailer, I went into this blank for the first time.
All in all, I think that we got more than we could've expected. Although I can totally understand why many people consider this a 2 hour and 45 minute endurance stretch, I think this film was simply not really made for them. This movie is not so much about just the story, which given the run-time is pretty thin, but it's about the total experience. It takes you right into this dark, dystopian future, into a world, where humans play god and have ruined their own planet in a way it's no longer a place anybody would want to live.
You really need to go out and see this big and loud. It's a movie that only really works properly in theaters.
quote: Geoff Jones
2) It seemed silly that Wallace got the color wrong when he tried to do something. That's the one thing he would have gotten right. 3) I never understood why they needed to take a character off-world to torture him. I didn't buy that they couldn't just do it on Earth.
The eye color was indeed a rather cheap story short-cut, something that felt rushed. Then again, he obviously knew it was just another replicant, not the replicant he loved.
I didn't get that torture part either. Too me it looked like there was sufficient torture on Earth already. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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