If every new film made today is to a greater or lesser degree an echo box of past possibilities, what's notable is how much Villeneuve gives those echoes room to breathe and to be new.

In the end, for all its pleasures, it's difficult to view Blade Runner 2049 as anything but an elaborate echo of the original, neither true sequel nor reboot, unclear of its own identity.

The film dares to be ambiguous, but ambiguity is a bad fit with the current critical mood that art must be prescriptive rather than reflective.

The look and feel of "Blade Runner 2049" is so well conceived that by the time Deckard makes his entrance, his presence is merely a bonus.