Altered Carbon Resleeved

Can we really call Altered Carbon Resleeved a feature-length movie?  Netflix is selling it as one, but the average episode runs about an hour.  Resleeved runs 15-20 minutes longer than most episodes.  It doesn’t feel like a feature-length story.

Then again, here we are.

However, Resleeved is a bit different  It’s a prequel for one thing, set about a year after the presumed deaths of both Quellcrist and Reileen, and that means that only one member of the main series’s cast is involved, namely Chris Conner.  Conner usually plays Poe, but here he’s a different hotel AI and the occasional narrator.  It’s actually a different character with a different way of speaking while still having Conner’s unique voice.

Also, it’s a CGI anime feature that looks like this:

In a nutshell, Takeshi Kovacs wakes up in a new body, doing a job for a Yakuza boss in exchange for having his Yakuza record on Harlan’s World wiped clean.  The job involves looking into the murder of the boss’s brother, and to get things started, Kovacs needs to keep the clan’s tattoo artist alive.  Said artist is a young girl with a secret that only the clan tattoo artist holds.

Now, I am actually not inclined to say too much about this one.  This is the world of Altered Carbon, so that means that no has to be whom they appear to be.  That works its way into the narrative here, providing the story with two characters from the main show, but I won’t say who the second one is since it’s something of a plot twist.

But I’ll tell you one thing, since this is an animated feature, that means we can get some really gory and creative violence.  The primary grunts for the story’s Big Bad are a series of high tech ninjas with all the sharp, bladed weapons and Wonder Woman lassos that such a fighter would carry.  Blood fountains and splashes all over as the minions mow down anyone who isn’t a main character.

The story ends with the promise of more anime-style sequels, so there may be more coming here.  Is it worth it for anyone who isn’t an Altered Carbon fan?    Actually, possibly.  The movie does explain the world’s concepts in the beginning of the movie, and it makes very few references to the main series.  I’m not a huge anime guy, but this was fun enough if not quite in the same vein as the main show.  So, if we get more of either, I will probably check it out.

In the meantime, I need something new for Mondays.  How about Amazon’s Nazi-hunting show Hunters?

Yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing Al Pacino hunt Nazis.