10 Upcoming Blockbusters You Should Be Worried About

Blade Runner has a deserved status as one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, but when it was first released the box office was disappointing and the critical reactions decidedly mixed. 35 years and multiple cuts of the original later, Blade Runner 2049 faces the unenviable task of creating a worthwhile follow-up to a stone-cold classic.

The components are all there for one of the best sci-fi blockbusters in recent memory; returning star Harrison Ford is supported by the undeniably talented Ryan Gosling and Jared Leto, the story comes from the original's co-writer Hampton Fancher and Denis Villeneuve, one of the best directors working today, teams once again with the incomparable Roger Deakins. With that sort of talent assembled, what could possibly go wrong?

Hard sci-fi is always a tough nut to crack both critically and commercially, and there's always the question of how much appeal Blade Runner genuinely has to general audiences in 2017. Villeneuve is a great director but can sometimes be a self-indulgent and borderline pretentious one, and faces a delicate balancing act to get the movie right.

Blade Runner 2049 is treading careful ground; it has to expand the mythology and stand on its own merits without being too reverential to its predecessor, make sure to focus on the characters instead of sweeping futuristic vistas and cool shots, all while trying to tell a story likely to be full of theological and ideological musings that audiences will actually care about. So no pressure.