A sequel to Blade Runner could go really bad. Especially today! Blade Runner is set in the year 2019. Back in 1982, 2019 was pretty far away, and it seemed plausible that by then the world would have turned into a nightmarish hell with giant moving billboards and flying cars. Now we’re just months away from 2019 and... well, I guess we don’t have the flying cars yet anyway.

Despite the challenge, Blade Runner 2049 is now a reality. Original director Ridley Scott produced the new film, which was co-written by Blade Runner screenwriter Hampton Fancher. Harrison Ford even came back to reprise his role as private eye Rick Deckard, alongside Ryan Gosling as a new Blade Runner named K, on the trail of a huge mystery that the long-missing Deckard apparently holds they key to uncovering. Denis Villeneuve, the incredibly talented guy behind Sicario and Arrival, replaced Scott as director, and he brought in Roger Deakins, maybe the greatest cinematographer of his generation, to help create a sequel that lives up to one of the most visually influential films of all time.

I haven’t seen the movie myself, but at least according to the first wave of the reviews, Villeneuve and Deakins may have actually done it. These first tweets about early screenings of Blade Runner 2049 are wildly ecstatic, praising the story, the characters, and particularly Deakins’ visuals. Just about all of them call it a worthy successor. Some call it the best movie of 2017. It’s basically the best possible outcome for the movie at this point. Here’s a sample of the tweets so far:

We’ll see what the wider critical reaction looks like, but so far so good. Blade Runner 2049 opens in theaters on October 6.

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