The film is clearly strongly influenced by ‘Blade Runner’ with its neo-noir aesthetic. The production is ambitious and manages to create a visually impressive sci-fi world, but for me that’s where the interest in the film ends. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to stay focused on it. The characters give off a monotonous vibe and there’s an overall lack of energy that even the action couldn’t quite fix. Perhaps writer/director Guy-Roger Duvert was more focused on the visuals than the story and characters which could have done with a bit more nuance; however, as previously mentioned, the film does succeed in terms of aesthetics.
In the end, despite its efforts, ‘2047’ just feels like a standard sci-fi film and doesn’t quite manage to take its themes of freedom and the implications of virtual reality technology to the full extent it could have done in order to make it more interesting. Even with the action the film feels kind of flat, and it’s just missing a spark in the narrative to take it to its full potential. Duvert does deserve a lot of credit for making such an ambitious debut feature film as writer and director, however, having had a career as a composer. This film at least shows Duvert’s skill as a good visual storyteller, and I look forward to seeing any future projects he does.