I really do miss going to the movies, but in the age of coronavirus and social distancing, that's a luxury put on hold. Fortunately, in the digital age, new movies come to alternate platforms. One thing all this social distancing has enabled is more free time to get caught up on or try new series and movies online.
For months now, I've had friends trying to get me to check out the Altered Carbon series. And the older I get, the more I seem to resist reading or watching something new when someone tells me I have to do it. I tend to lean into new series and movies on my own whims. Eat your heart out, James Dean. An ultimate rebel, this girl.
Netflix recently dropped a new movie in its Altered Carbon universe. The film is an anime (Japanese animation) called Altered Carbon: Resleeved. And wow is it a trip.
Making an anime of an already-established series can work out if it's done right. The Animatrix and Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, are good examples, with both animes turning out better than the live-action sequels that followed their original movies. That's especially true for Highlander. Four sequels, each worse than the last. Woof.
But whereas I'd seen The Matrix and Highlander before watching their anime adaptations, I've never actually seen Altered Carbon (nor have I read the novel). That didn't stop me from loading up the new movie, though.
The premise to Resleeved is simple enough. It's set in the distant future, where people can copy their mental self onto digital devices called stacks and take on new artificial bodies called sleeves. It grants humanity a sort of immortality and opens up the way for deep space travel and colonization of distant worlds. If you've got all the time in the universe, you can visit anywhere ... eventually.
A FASCINATING SPOT
There are grand concepts to such a series, like what do sex, age and other demographics matter in a world where you can just buy a new body? How does that change the definition of humanity? And does humanity even exist anymore if everyone walking around is just a copy of their former selves? It's a fascinating spot for the series to be in.
As Altered Carbon: Resleeved opens, I was greeted with a large illuminated city at night, filled with skyscrapers and giant holographic advertisements of women. This anime is sort of a combination of Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell in regards to concepts and visuals.
There's no opening theme song for Resleeved, and its tidy 74-minute running time assured me whether good or bad, this jaunt into the world of sleeves and stacks would be brief.
The story for this movie can seem a little muddled for the first quarter or third of the anime. But that's pretty common for anime movies. Stories tend to be grandiose and berserk, especially within the genre of science fiction.
Perhaps having an established series to set the rules ahead of time benefits the anime and reels in the wildness just a tad. Some anime movies without that benefit can just fly off into insanity, leaving audiences who aren't used to the medium wondering what the heck they're watching.
Like the live-action series, the main character for this story is Takeshi "Tak" Kovacs. Though since this is a world of jumping bodies, Tak's appearance in this anime looks nothing like the previous actors that have played him (Anthony Mackie and Joel Kinnaman). In this story, which takes place before the live-action series, Tak (Ray Chase) is sent to the planet Latimer to protect a tattoo artist and investigate the death of a yakuza boss.
A JAPANESE FLAIR
I've got a friend who is working his way through season two of the live-action series now, and he tells me the main series has a Japanese flair, but the anime seems to take it a few steps further, dealing primarily with yakuza (organized crime syndicates originating in Japan) and honor-bound traditions.
The strongest selling point for this anime is the animation, hands down. I'm pretty convinced I will always prefer more traditional 2D animation to 3D CGI. I recently watched the 3D CGI remake of Pokemon: The First Movie, and while the Pokemon and backgrounds looked great, the people were a mixed bag. I didn't care for Ash's design, and it was pretty distracting throughout the unnecessary remake.
With that said, the 3D animation in Resleeved blew me away, from simple things like the textures of wet concrete in the city to how fluid the main characters moved while in combat. And this is a violent movie, with plenty of blood and gore.
The action really is the main selling point of Resleeved. It opens with a chase and then quickly gives way into a crazy cyberpunk ninja battle without so much as any introduction of the main characters. All you need to know is one group is trying to kill the others, and zoom! Off to the races.
The fight scenes are amazing in this film. I don't quite understand how -- in an advanced age of technology with sleeves and deep space travel -- people are still using guns, ninja stars and swords, but it sure does look cool. Eyes on, brain off, I suppose.
But right away and into the first fight, the anime pulled me in. I was sort of lukewarm about watching the movie beforehand but seeing that first fight told me I was going to enjoy at least the action Resleeved offered me. And hey, I could appreciate good fight scenes for 74 minutes.
CORNY DIALOGUE
Where the anime falters is the dialogue. It can get downright corny at times, and it took me out of the adrenaline-fueled combat this movie offered so generously.
There isn't a lot of room for character development in this movie, either. I guess that's where fans of the live-action series have an advantage. They already know Tak and his motivations. Across two seasons they've watched him, whereas I had 74 minutes to meet and know him. I guess that's kind of on me.
The only character who had any kind of story was the tattoo artist named Holly (Brittany Cox). They tried to give a little flashback to Gena (Elizabeth Maxwell) who serves as our third protagonist helping to protect Holly, but I guess that was mostly for the benefit of fans who had seen the live-action series. It didn't do much for me.
Resleeved had a decent score that got the job done, but I certainly don't remember any moments where the music blew me away. And while the story meandered a little about two-thirds in, the finale wrapped it up and cleared things well enough for me to follow along.
I'm relieved this anime didn't end up a boring mess like Netflix's 3D remake of Knights of the Zodiac, but I guess that's where the movie benefits from having a 74-minute runtime. There's just not a lot of time to hang out in Mistakeville. I do think it's remarkable that Altered Carbon: Resleeved told a superior story and had attention-grabbing fight scenes in less than 90 minutes, as opposed to what the Knights of the Zodiac remake offered me.
Resleeved is a solid watch for fans of the live-action series. It expands the universe a little bit in some pleasant ways. Visually and conceptually, this movie may borrow from Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner, but it certainly never hits the highs either of them do. Still, it's not a bad watch for 74 minutes, even if you've never seen the series before. Though now I might just have to. Now, they just need to make an anime for The Expanse.
MovieStyle on 04/03/2020