Altered Carbon: Resleeved has many elements of a typical Takeshi Kovacs story. Kovacs finds himself in a new military grade sleeve, hired by a meth named Tanaseda Hideki to protect a young tattooist named Holly Togram and find out what happened to his brother, who was the kumicho (leader) of a Yakuza clan called the Mizumoto clan. And then there’s a hotel AI named Ogai, voiced by the same actor as Poe (Chris Connors), who has a few tricks up his sleeve.
The animated film takes place shortly after the betrayal of the Envoy rebellion, and there are plenty of nods to the established lore, including a character who’s more than meets the eye. The story is made more for established Altered Carbon fans rather than newcomers, as it spends little time on character development and mostly divides the three arcs according to action set pieces. There are tech ninjas and CTAC operatives lurking around a characteristically cyberpunk planet called Latimer. It’s so on point with the Blade Runner aesthetic that there’s little uniqueness in it to make it stand out as much as Bay City or Harlan’s World.
Ray Chase brings both Joel Kinnaman’s brooding nature and Anthony Mackie’s charm to the role of Kovacs. The central mystery does lead to a reveal that employs body swapping in a clever way. The story’s focus on the Yakuza gives the story a cultural heft that works well with the animation. The central ritual, with the tattoos being used to give a respectable death to old leaders of the clan while the new leaders take over, is intriguing, and at times, it takes on an almost magical tone with Holly activating the new kumicho’s tattoo.
The animation is fluid, but looks like a Telltale game’s graphics and at times, very cheap for a TV show. The action makes up for it: it’s well-choreographed and intense, and at times it’s better on the eyes than the action in season two. However, the thin narrative makes it hard to appreciate the final product. The story is mostly told in exposition dumps. It doesn’t work for a story that’s supposed to be a mystery, as we rarely discover information as the protagonists come up on it.
If you are already an Altered Carbon fan, then you’re probably going to like Resleeved.
The film doesn’t really try to take any risks beyond the slick action, but then again, maybe that’s where Netflix wants to take the franchise: a smattering of robust action with passable narrative. That’s not the worst thing they could have done, but it’s disappointing, considering that the franchise can be so much more. Altered Carbon doesn’t have to be as intense or soulful like Blade Runner 2049, but that doesn’t mean it should spin it’s wheels and become derivative.
Then again, Resleeved is mostly entertaining, and maybe that’s the main metric that Netflix was aiming for with this film. In that case, there are worse ways of spending an hour and fourteen minutes.