Blade runner sequel set to be a classic

BLEAK and beautiful, Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel that not only grapples with an existential question first posed by Ridley Scott 35 years ago in Blade Runner, it also stands alone as an intelligent and impressive piece of filmmaking, destined to join its predecessor in the pantheon of sci-fi classics.

That question - can machines have a soul? - has been addressed in numerous films about AI (artificial intelligence), including Her (2013) and Ex Machina (2015) recently and perhaps most famously in the granddaddy of them all, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The foundation…