美国国家公共电台 NPR Review: 'Blade Runner 2049' Will Satisfy Fans As It Expands On Original

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Ridley Scott's science fiction film "Blade Runner" was a modest hit in theaters in 1982 and a massive one later on video. Scott's punk noir dystopia initially¹ got mixed reviews, but the director kept re-cutting his film. And by 2007, when he released what he called a final cut, "Blade Runner" had inspired a whole generation of filmmakers. Well, now one of that new generation has directed a sequel. Critic Bob Mondello says in many respects, "Blade Runner 2049" surpasses the original.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE³: It's 30 years after the events in the first movie, and what was noir has turned all wrong - daylight filtered through a toxic⁴ haze⁵ so thick you can barely make out the dead trees. The sun's ability to cut through this murk has diminished to the point that 2049 Los Angeles needs snowplows to keep its streets clear, artificial farming to put food on its tables - also blade runners to clear away the few old-school replicants that remain after a series of rebellions.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLADE RUNNER 2049")

DAVE BAUTISTA: (As Sapper Morton) Plan on taking me in?

RYAN GOSLING: (As K) I would much prefer that to the alternative.

MONDELLO: That's blade runner K, whose job gets him roughed up a lot. He's clearing the way for the newer bioengineered androids that their blind maker² claims are safer.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLADE RUNNER 2049")

JARED LETO: (As Niander Wallace) Every leap of civilization was built off the back of slaves. Replicants are the future, but I can only make so many.

MONDELLO: The devil's always in the details, no? K, played by a stone-faced Ryan Gosling, may not work for this guy, but he works for authorities who've given up regulating corporations to do their bidding instead. His work takes him trekking⁶ through an American Southwest that is the result of their neglect, protein farms that look like massive satellite dishes stretching to the horizon, a sea wall hundreds of feet high holding back the Pacific, a garbage dump smoldering⁷ from Los Angeles all the way to San Diego where doomed⁸ children in rags pull scrap⁹ metal from discarded electronics for a latter-day Fagin.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLADE RUNNER 2049")

LENNIE JAMES: (As Mister Cotton) The nickel is for the colonial ships - closest any of them will - any of us - is going to get to that grand life off-world. So come on now. Which ore do you have in mind?

MONDELLO: If this sequence looks like 21st century Dickens, Director Denis Villeneuve has crafted others to conjure¹⁰ up Nabokov, "The Great Gatsby," "Pinocchio," "Treasure Island," "Macbeth," the Bible. K's very name suggests a link to Kafka. And where the first film had a unicorn¹¹, this one has a kind of Trojan horse. Grad students are going to have a field day interpreting the literary references. Movie-savvy audiences will relish¹² equally diverse film riffs. And "Blade Runner" fans - well, they'll get everything they came for and then some when Harrison Ford¹³'s Deckard shows up looking weather-beaten...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLADE RUNNER 2049")

HARRISON FORD: (As Rick Deckard) I had your job once.

MONDELLO: ...But definitely not beaten in any other sense.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLADE RUNNER 2049")

FORD: (As Rick Deckard) I was good at it.

GOSLING: (As K) I know.

FORD: (As Rick Deckard) What do you want?

GOSLING: (As K) I want to ask you some questions.

MONDELLO: Questions, yes - the film is crammed¹⁴ with those, all of them in the service of the script's big ideas.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLADE RUNNER 2049")

LETO: (As Niander Wallace) The future of the species is finally unearthed¹⁵.

MONDELLO: They are ideas expanded from the first film about what it means to be human, about who gets to have a soul, about the costs of slavery, the price of feeling, the allure¹⁶ of surfaces - also about where society is headed. We may not have flying cars, colonies on other planets or replicants, but there are plenty of ways in which we've more or less caught up to the 2019 the original "Blade Runner" predicted - omnipresent advertising¹⁷ and surveillance, street violence met by police-state tactics, climate so screwed up it seems as if Mother Nature is at once in retreat and coming for us with everything she has left.

Flash forward three more decades, and Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins give us staggering new visions of the future, ones that confound and trance and mystify in "Blade Runner 2049" even while making rich cinematic senses. And let me stress the cinematic. Few movies in recent years have so rewarded being seen on the biggest possible screen, being heard, being felt in the theater. I'm Bob Mondello.

1 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

2 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

5 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

6 trekking   

v.艰苦跋涉，徒步旅行( trek的现在分词 )；（尤指在山中）远足，徒步旅行，游山玩水

参考例句：

• She can't come pony trekking after all because she's in a delicate condition. 她结果还是不能坐小马车旅行，因为她已怀孕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We spent the summer trekking in the foothills of the Himalayas. 我们整个夏天都在喜马拉雅山的山麓艰难跋涉。 来自互联网

7 smoldering   

v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mat was smoldering where the burning log had fallen. 燃烧的木棒落下的地方垫子慢慢燃烧起来。 来自辞典例句
• The wood was smoldering in the fireplace. 木柴在壁炉中闷烧。 来自辞典例句

8 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。

9 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

10 conjure   

v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法

参考例句：

• I conjure you not to betray me.我恳求你不要背弃我。
• I can't simply conjure up the money out of thin air.我是不能像变魔术似的把钱变来。

11 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

12 relish   

n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味

参考例句：

• I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
• I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。

13 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

14 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

15 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

16 allure   

n.诱惑力，魅力；vt.诱惑，引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• The window displays allure customers to buy goods.橱窗陈列品吸引顾客购买货物。
• The book has a certain allure for which it is hard to find a reason.这本书有一种难以解释的魅力。

17 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。