A new international trailer for Blade Runner 2049 gives all due respect to Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford, but what drew my attention on this latest marketing tool are the elements that suggest the sequel will not be simply a slavish copy of the original.
Sure, there are visuals that are impressive and should look staggering on the big screen. Sure, Harrison Ford is back, though, for all we know, he may be limited to one sequence late in the story. But there's also more daylight than I've been expecting, more grit and dirt and ugly blood and wounds and garbage.
That's all to the good, in my opinion. Director Denis Villeneuve has shown, time and again, that he has the capacity to come up with new ways of looking at familiar material. Working in collaboration with the supremely talented Roger Deakins as director of photography is also a strong factor in my increasingly positive hopes.
Ryan Gosling is, obviously, game for messing up that pretty face of his -- I thought of Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, for some reason -- and the rest of the cast looks they are employed effectively, people like Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, and even, bless his heart, Dave Bautista.
Check out the trailer below and let us know your reaction. Are your hopes rising? Or does it still seem like a hopeless, pointless endeavor?
Blade Runner 2049 opens on October 6, 2017.