I loved it. That was my feeling walking out of the theater and it remains my feeling after a night of Blade Runner flavored dreams. Blade Runner 2049 is worth the expense of movie tickets and *concessions.

Blade Runner’s greatest strength is sensory nostalgia. It takes the grainy memories of the first movie and explodes them into reality. Every single adolescent conversation about what it means to be human, the value of life and the savage brutality of maintaining those beliefs is played out in a breathtakingly beautiful, monochromatic peacock.

The weakness of Blade Runner is plot. The use of a primary science fiction trope isn’t the problem. That trope exists because it is important and endlessly relevant. The problem is that after 35 years (How did I get old so quickly?), the film is written as a prequel movie. The first movie wasn’t a neat and tiny package with a beginning and end, but it was a complete story. The new Blade Runner feels like closure of the old to setup for the new. If you never saw the original Blade Runner, don’t watch it now. Immerse yourself in the Blade Runner world that they are creating now. If you are a fan of the first movie, you’re going to love the characters, art, music and layers of detail. Blade Runner 2049 is sensual. While it neither validates nor invalidates the questions the original movie wanted audiences asking themselves, it affirms that we still don’t have the answers.

*Always visit the concession stand. Movies are so expensive to produce that ticket sales do little to nothing to help finance movie theaters. Concession purchases pay for the luxury of a neighborhood theater staffed by your community members. No matter how big your home television, there are some movies that should be experienced in a theater. Blade Runner 2049 is one of those movies. Don’t lose that option for future movies by filling your pockets with gas station candy bars. See the movie. Buy the concessions.