And so continues (finally…) the erstwhile “Summer” of Cyberpunk, with a movie that I have in fact seen before not so long ago…
See also my very brief thoughts on Johnny Mnemonic
I’ve now watched 2022’s Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White. It’s…reductively, it’s “just” the 1995 film re-graded into black and white. However, this is the director’s (Robert Longo) preferred version of the film; he apparently wanted to shoot that way in the first place, but the studio denied him.
I watched carefully to see if I could find any differences between the 1995 version and the re-grade, since Wikipedia (the data scroll) mentions that the latter is “closer to Longo’s intended version” and…honestly couldn’t see any differences in terms of sound, shot transitions, scenes or anything. That being said, there’s something about this movie in black and white where it just…sings. That’s the best way I can think to put it. The visuals just pop beautifully, and in comparison to the original, a bunch of the scenes – especially the exterior night shots – are so much clearer.
Really fun all around, and I’m glad I watched both versions.