10 Sci-Fi Movies That Had No Right To Be This Good

Sci-fi staple Blade Runner was released in 1982. The fact that a sequel was commissioned for a 2017 release - 35 years after the original - screamed "soulless cash grab."

This made the revelation that Blade Runner 2049 was awesome even more delightful. The film is an unabashed love letter to its predecessor, with director Denis Villeneuve (a master of gorgeous visual spectacle in his own right) paying loving homage to the beautiful look of the 1982 original with each lingering shot, and every second of artistic atmosphere.

Ryan Gosling is exemplary as replicant Joe, while even the most stern-faced of critics couldn't resist a gleeful cheer upon seeing Harrison Ford return as Rick Deckard. The original outing is such an unsurpassable watershed moment for science fiction as a genre that it is impossible to even envision a sequel doing justice to the original premise, but do so Blade Runner: 2049 does; to even be mentioned amongst the same company as Ridley Scott's groundbreaking initial outing - let alone be compared favorably with - is praise of the highest order.

It may not invoke the same internal debate regarding what might be described as authentic "humanity" as its predecessor, but Blade Runner: 2049 serves as one of the more recent pleasant surprises of the genre to date. Sci-fi remakes don't all go as smoothly as this nuanced outing; just take a look at the burn out ruins of the Alien franchise.