I’m not normally a fan of movie sequels, even the so-called ‘good ones’. (Sure, De Niro was brilliant in Godfather II, but was it really as good as the first movie? And for the love of God, don’t even get me started on Godfather III!)
But the new Blade Runner sequel is absolutely terrific. It’s essentially a thinking man’s version of Pinocchio, offering up complex questions about what makes us ‘human’ and what it means to ‘love.’
To be clear, the movie is not your typical action-packed, shoot-em-up, syfy/western, so don’t go expecting to see the next ‘Star Trek.’ But if you want to see a film that you will be thinking about long after the closing credits, Blade Runner 2049 is a great choice.
What I personally found interesting about Blade Runner 2049, though, was that its entire storyline pivots back and forth around frequent archiving and records management plot twists. Even more fascinating is the story’s multiple references to something called ‘the Blackout.’
Exactly what happened during ‘the Blackout’ is never fully explained. But whatever it was, it caused a worldwide catastrophic loss of ‘electronic records’ that plunged the entire planet into a dystopic nightmare that they didn’t seem to be able to overcome.
I left the theater in chills, wondering, given the massive struggles that the records management profession faces today, if we aren’t experiencing ‘the Blackout’ right now and don’t know it because the effects won’t be really felt until somewhere in future. Maybe around 2049?
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Since we’re on the subject of new movies, I thought I would debut the trailer for my own science fiction epic coming soon to a theater near you. Advanced tickets go on sale next week: