"Painful to live in fear, isn't it?"

It's all about the eyes. The gateways to the human soul and the generator of our memories. And what are we if we don't have memories?

Blade Runner is a film that is all in the visuals. A future-noir thriller set in a foggy neon-soaked cyberpunk dystopia, but it's breathtaking to look at. It's a grossly overpopulated world that is decaying with a sense of distance. People literally fill the streets of Los Angeles, yet they lack any sense of life or connection. However, thanks to a killer design team, the world feels familiar yet totally new and enthralling. Distant yet somehow very lived-in. Every frame is a spell of sight and sound.

Each character in this film fears to lose their sense of life. Progress and evolution have only made living all the more difficult and hollow. Blade Runner tells a classically structured narrative filled with deeply charged and mysteriously intriguing characters. But it's at its core is what makes it such a beautifully transcendent experience. It's truly an ambitious film with A LOT to say but most importantly it studies the basic concept of what it even means to be truly alive, even as society has outpaced itself.

Blade Runner was in many ways an important film for me when I saw it for the first time some 8+ years ago. It was the first film that I saw to use genre filmmaking as a means of exploring great life-altering concepts in a profoundly stylish and meaningful manner. It's so amazing to me that I can watch this film on any given day and it still blows my mind in every sense. The will to live is all it takes to be human.

I've never been more excited to see a film than I am to see Blade Runner 2049 and I'm seeing it in less than 2 hours. My body is not ready and I will NEVER be the same.