The first reviews for BLADE RUNNER are out now (read Eric Walkuski’s here) and the consensus is it’s an amazing follow-up to the original film, and stands as a sci-fi masterpiece on its very own. But we still have a week to go before the film comes out, and that means we still have some more prequel shorts to watch. The latest – BLACKOUT 2022 – could go down as the best of the bunch, with it being done as an anime from COWBOY BEBOP director, Shinichiro Watanabe.
The short takes place three years after the events of the first film, with Nexus replicants being hunted down by humans, who are using a massive online database to know exactly who and where they are. A group of replicants take matters into their own hands by launching a warhead over Los Angeles that detonates an EMP that destroys said databases. Watanabe captures the bleak atmosphere in anime form while throwing in some slick action, creating a stellar animated experience that warrants a longer version.
BLADE RUNNER 2049 from Denis Villeneuve with Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Jared Leto and more arrives October 6.