I guess I'm surprised there isn't more activity in this thread.
I came back from a showing yesterday feeling thoroughly impressed. Blade Runner 2049 perfectly captures the aesthetics and ideas of the original film (as well as I can understand that one), without resorting to excessive nostalgia bait. There certainly are callbacks to the first film, but they're all worked into the story so naturally that noticing their presence is truly rewarding. Blade Runner 2049 is certainly a film to make one think - not only in its themes of percieved reality and identity, but also in its method of actually "showing, not telling" for much of the time. It's not exactly hard to put the pieces laid out together and realize where the plot is heading, but the fact that the film lays the clues out there for the audience, rather than explaining every little detail, is something I greatly appreciated. The emotional payoffs of certain scenes worked largely due to this method, as well as the film's propensity to take its time for the emotional reactions of the main character to hit their critical point. The soundtrack also did wonders for the film's atmosphere - it's great to hear Zimmer again on something completely non-superhero.
I can't say I ever could have predicted how the movie would end, but in the end, I think it wrapped up about as perfectly as it could have. I definitely, strongly recommend sci-fi fans check this one out while it's in theaters.