Blade Runner 2049: 10 Reasons It's Massively Overrated
7. The Soundtrack Was Underutilized
Blade Runner 2049 was originally supposed to be scored by Denis Villeneuve's frequent collaborator, Jóhann Jóhannsson, the man responsible for the admittedly brilliant musical scores for films such as Prisoners, Arrival, and Sicario.
Partway through the process, however, Jóhannsson left, for reasons later cited by Villeneuve. "I needed to go back to something closer to Vangelis," he revealed in an interview. "Jóhan and I decided that I will need to go in another direction."
So Jóhannsson was replaced by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, the first of whom is known for his quick turnaround time, and the result is... well, it's just the more famous cues and sounds from Vangelis' original soundtrack for Blade Runner, really, alongside lots of somewhat atmospheric but mostly forgettable stuff.
The only musical cues that stick in your memory from Zimmer's "new" score are the ones that Vangelis composed back in 1982. Which is a shame, given that the musical score is so inherent to the brilliance of Ridley Scott's original picture; you can't imagine the film without it. In the case of Blade Runner 2049, however, the music leans exclusively on nostalgia and fails to conjure anything fresh or exciting.