Ryan Gosling is an android cop who is re-enacting the film Her when he discovers a plot to create a sequel to Blade Runner. This inevitably leads him to Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard who has been hiding in an abandoned casino for the past thirty years until the budget could be raised.

What follows is in a lot of ways a classic crime procedural, but you know there is a lot more going on than that because the dialogue is vaguely philosophical as well.

Jared Leto continues his streak of extreme costume changes, proving that his career strategy of selecting roles that a nineteen year old agency intern thinks are cool continues to pay off for him. His character’s monologues are some of the most memorable parts of the film, and as soon as I can get my hands on a script to remember them I’ll be sure to post them as quotes on my desktop wallpaper.

Throughout all this are simply breathtaking scenes of a sad, polluted, dystopian metropolis, all of which were filmed on location in current day LA with a rain machine.

It’s three hours long, and it’s clear that only in the hands of a truly experienced director could you feel all three hours, and each moment is a joy to nap through or frown at.

Director Denis Villeneuve is a filmmaker who reminds me why I chose to be a critic in the first place: I love to use the word “masterpiece”. From the opening frame I was waiting for the end credits so I could tweet the word “masterpiece”. I even had a draft ready.

In short, the sequel has done the original proud, mimicking its style, themes and in a final tribute, its low box office.

We can look forward to seeing Harrison Ford reprise more of his classic roles again soon with the recently announced Witness: 2018 and 2 Fugitive 2 Furious.