Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 was a stunning, albeit slightly problematic, follow-up to Sir Ridley Scott's iconic original film. We certainly liked it, but not everyone was so keen.
In news that is more than a little awkward, one of Blade Runner's original stars has admitted that he thought the sequel was not only 'soulless' but also pretty pointless too.
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Ouch.
Rutger Hauer, who played replicant Roy Batty in the 1982 film, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he didn't understand why Blade Runner 2049 was "necessary".
When asked if he had seen the sequel, Hauer conceded that he had only 'sniffed and scratched' at it, believing that the original story should have been 'left alone'.
[Hauer in Blade Runner]
"It looks great but I struggle to see why that film was necessary," he explained."I just think if something is so beautiful, you should just leave it alone and make another film.
"Don't lean with one elbow on the success that was earned over 30 years in the underground."
Adding that while Scott's Blade Runner had a central question – "what does it mean to be human?" – 2049 was lacking any kind of nuanced existential debate.
"It's not a character-driven movie and there's no humour, there's no love, there's no soul. You can see the homage to the original, but that's not enough to me," he said.
"I knew that wasn't going to work. But I think it's not important what I think."
Unfortunately for Villeneuve and the 2049 team, Hauer's not the only one who had a problem with the movie – and no, we're not just talking about its audience (or rather, lack of one).
Sir Ridley Scott, who worked on the sequel, recently acknowledged that 2049 had one central problem: its length.
"It was f**king way too long. F**k me! And most of that script's mine," he said.
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