The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049

In terms of presentation and production quality, this is one of best movie books I’ve ever seen. The whole thing is very nicely made, with high quality colour print throughout, firm binding, and very solid hardback cover. Inside, the design and layout of the book follows the plot of the movie, with pages given over entirely to stills and artwork. The text is informative and concise and, though it doesn’t look as if there’s much text, there is quite a lot to read.The book goes some way to clarifying baffling elements of the movie, such as the boiling pot in the opening scene, why the LA outskirts are a vast dump, why there are so many human orphans, the bright orange landscapes, why Niander is blind, Love’s strange love-hate behaviour, the weird test that K does, why Deckard is in Las Vegas, the blackout (it’s also explained in the Blu Ray extras), and so on. It also deals with the casual attitudes to sex that form the backdrop of many scenes. The movie features many objectified, submissive and trivial women. The book reveals that in 2049 the writers supposed this treatment also applied to men. Alas, the male half of the idea got lost along the way, with the men keeping their clothes on, not being prostitutes, and not being subservient and sexually permissive androids. This issue has been cited as the main reason why the move suffered at the box office. Understandably, many female moviegoers did not find this engaging viewing.The only problem with the book is the picture captions, which are very small! They are almost unreadable. For some of them, I resorted to a smart phone camera to zoom in so I could see the text. That’s ridiculous and should not be necessary. If they’d kept the caption text the same size as the main body text then all would be well.Overall, this is a visually stunning book about a visually stunning movie. It explains some of the misconceptions people had about various parts of the movie, fills in much background, and explains some of the extraordinary special effects. If you liked the movie, then this is a must-have. If you didn’t, then this book is unlikely to change your view.

Really nice 'coffee table' book, with extra insight into the film itself as well as the behind the scenes work. The book has a lot of exclusinve photos of the sets, actors as well as lovely concept art and drawings. If I have any criticisms they are that the book printing quality is not the best I have seen, and certainly not worthy of the book itself. It's not awful, but for the price and the book status it should have been better. The pages and pictures are not as glossy as they should be, they are a bit too grainy for my liking.The actual quality of the binding and the cover is not in any doubt though, this is not a book that will fall apart. People are rightly complaining about the sticker on the back cover which takes a fair bit of effort to remove, and also there is a curious situation with the 'deluxe' edition of this book. It is way over priced for simply an extra slip-cover and cheap lithograph, so don't waste your money on it. Unless of course you can get one of the deluxe copies that has been signed by Denis and Tanta. That is the thing I don't understand, as they are exactly the same price as the deluxe versions which appear not to have the signatures? What is going on with that I don't know, but www.forbiddenplanet.com has the deluxe with the directors (real) signature, which would make it a real collectors item. Now sold out of course......

I'd watched flip throughs of this book on YouTube before, and was on the fence about purchasing it. The imagery was obviously stunning, but I was hesitant because of the seemingly large number of film stills, behind the scenes stuff as well, over concept art.I ended up ordering this and the actual 'art of' book for this movie, but the funny thing is, I prefer this one to the art book. The visuals really are stunning and inspirational as an artist, and seeing them up close in this rather large book, it makes me regret not having purchased it sooner.

Such a stunning book!Got this as a gift for my father who loves blade runner as much as I do and he fell absolutely in love with it!The shots and images are absolutely breathtaking and also features some fun and interesting information about the production and the story.It is on the more expensive side though and probably wouldn't be madly appreciated unless you're a big fan of 2049 (so mabey not for the casual fan) but as a huge die hard, we absolutely adore it!

Great book with spectacular photos from the shoot and production design. Also lots of competent information on the film by Ms Lapointe. I saw the film before I bought the book, and I was in awe of Rachael appearing in it. I read on IMDB's trivia section that a lot of trickery had gone into the resurrection of Rachael, so of course I hoped that this book would give some background information on this as well. But there is none of it.Overall I rate this book 5 stars, but leaving out Rachael costs 1 star, so it's down to 4. Sorry Tanya, but you simply cannot ignore Rachael!Hope that someone feels inspired to produce an equally good coffee table book on Blade Runner 1982!

A book for every fan of the movie. It's just irresistible to pick up, and so hard to put down. Great quality paper and print. Full of amazing artwork and photography all interspersed with insightful writing.Don't delay, just get it.

Stunning. The movie exceeded my expectations and has only grown in my affection on re-watching. The book gives an insight to the process of production but it really is an art book that has some of the most beautifully realised environments in a sci-fi movie. If you are a fan of the movie the book will only enrich that.