"They think that details make it more real, but they're wrong. Reality is messy."

Dr. Ana Stelline

That quote is bitterly ironic. (Not a spoiler, don't worry; this review is pretty much spoiler free.) She's talking about Replicant memory implants there and what makes 'good' ones. Her point is that there is more art in what's missing and the messy parts, and that's what makes one emotional, visceral and real. The irony comes from the fact that she utters this line in the middle of the most expensive, overproduced monument to detail-orientation and obsessive compulsion that I've ever seen.

Let's get this out of the way first. Blade Runner 2049 is gorgeous. It is mind-meltingly, visual-cortex-blowing, auditory-center-shatteringly pretty. I saw it in Laser IMAX, and it was pretty much as close as I have come to being in non-gear VR. At one point, a device in the upper…

In any darkness

I can almost see you

dressed in old clothes

I've given away

or stored in boxes

and black bags

precariously stacked

In the dimly lit library

your billion books with

carefully torn paper

marking pages important

before and once

at some point in…

It's that time of year again! The time when we separate the hard from the soft. The myths from the legends. The tin...from the IRON.

Presenting, the 10th annual edition of...

THE IRON NODER CHALLENGE

Many hundreds have tried. Mere tens have succeeded. Do you think you have what it takes to enter the hallowed HALL OF THE IRON?

Actually, when you think about it, it's not even that hard. All you have…