Blade Runner 2049
On the movie-house circuit as from October
We’ve had to wait 35 long years to see this name appear on the movie theatre posterboards again: Blade Runner, one of the best-loved, often-quoted and most studied films in the history of sci-fi films and perhaps one of the best movies ever made. A film that still has a dark, irresistible magnetic attraction even today, something that no other sci-fi movie has ever managed to do before or since. But it seems that the wait is over at last.
I suspect that those of you who remember Ridley Scott’s 1982 version of Blade Runner so well simply couldn’t wait to dive back into the underbelly of Los Angeles to relive that dark, disillusioned and profoundly human Cyberpunk atmosphere of that futuristic, distorted world. Fortunately for us, it would appear that this unexpected sequel is a worthy successor to the original movie, somewhere between a remake and an upgrade, directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Already we can see from the trailer that this movie has many of the same features as the original: the rain lashing down, the neon lights, the foreboding electronic soundtrack, the green eyes of the androids and the scars on the Blade Runners’ faces. Yeah, that’s right, there are two of them this time around and the meeting between Agent K, the role played by Ryan Gosling, and his 1982 predecessor Rick Deckard – not quite the Harrison Ford we remember – is like the movie epiphany that we were all waiting for.
All we still need to wonder about is how the storyline will develop and, above all, which of the no less than seven different cuts of the original movie this new version will follow on from.
The Snowman
On the movie-house circuit as from October
Leading us to the start of winter, in a very cold and ghostly Oslo, there’s a trail of blood left behind by a ruthless killer who starts murdering people just as the first snowstorms of the season hit.
Surely only Martin Scorsese could have directed this thriller, the first to be drawn from one of the novels in the very popular detective Harry Hole series penned by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø. Not so, because in this movie it is Swedish Director Tomas Alfredson (author of Let the Right One In and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) who leads us step by step through detective Harry Hole’s (Michael Fassbender) investigation into a series of brutal murders involving women, which lead him to reopen decades-old open cases in the hope of finding enough clues to capture the killer before the snow falls again and covers all his tracks.
Thor: Ragnarok
On the movie-house circuit as from October
In this third chapter, the God of Thunder, now on the Asgard throne, faces the same fate as his father Odin before him and is exiled and imprisoned on the other side of the Universe. This is where his voyage back home begins in an attempt to stop the Ragnarok, the apocalypse that would destroy his world.
On the way to Infinity War and its sequel, the duo of upcoming films due for release in 2018 and 2019 that will follow the destinies of the Marvel sagas, we know that Thor: Ragnarok is set to be one of the important steps towards unravelling the subplots going on in this world that is increasingly interconnected and under threat from apocalyptic forces.
This impending threat gives the storyline of this film a certain seriousness, but that doesn’t mean that it lacks any of that mix of humour and action that has made the Marvel movies so successful.
In the role of the anti-hero who is determined to destroy Asgard is none other than Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett who, in addition to dealing with Thor, will also have to deal with the return of Hulk, greener and stronger than ever.
