Movie of the week: Blade Runner 2049

This belated sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic has been getting some ecstatic reviews. Sadly, it’s not the masterpiece some of the more excitable critics have been hailing it as – it’s merely very good. Thirty years after the original film, we follow Ryan Gosling’s K, a replicant (android) who hunts down his own kind, in the process stumbling upon a discovery that Jared Leto’s sinister plutocrat very much wants to exploit for himself. At our screening, the director personally asked us not to reveal much more than that, but really, it’s the visuals that are the selling point here. The mood and scale are alternately seductive and breathtaking, even if it has a frustrating habit of picking ideas up then forgetting about them – that said, it does feel strange criticising a film for having too many ideas. See it on the big screen if you can. Times & trailer