Altered Carbon

Deus Ex series, in other words, a copy-cat that borrows a lot from the most famous colleagues (not only) the cyberpunk genre; starting with stylization and ending with clichés, plot or themes. The settings is excellent, the action is an end in itself and is forced . Which wouldn't matter so much if the action would not have been so complex. However, this is not always the case. In any case, despite the slower start, the mentioned patchwork of borrowed inspiration combines everything more than well, mainly thanks to the second half, which, after all the cyberpunk gilt and violence, is based on functional emotions and fatefulness which is quite nice. So it has unmissable bugs (and the potential is definitely not fully exploited yet), but the source code is written damn well. That is something that is very welcomed in every genre movie, especially considering this one is a representative of an otherwise rather neglected genre. | S1: 4/5 | (02/06/2018)

Season 1 – 65% – I try to like the main protagonist, to respect James Purefoy in raw form, or see Vernon as a funny partner and not as annoyingly stubborn and one-dimensional filler. And it works for me until the eighth episode, which represents everything I dislike about the series and when I mentally give up on the investigation, the storytelling, or the flashbacks, and simply enjoy the one hundred percent visual experience (including the unrivalled queen Martha Higareda), possibly the most elaborately crafted visual aspect I have ever seen in the genre. As a result, I struggle with the overly familiar plot twists and, above all, with the unbearable pose of openness to everything "forbidden": blood, nudity, sex, violence, torture, screams – almost everything is so blatantly obvious that I don't have the space to believe in the final emotions evoked by the creators, even though they are squeezed out quite relentlessly, for longer than a few seconds. Naturalness got lost somewhere in the flashbacks. There was potential, but the resulting taste turns bitter all too quickly. Season 2 – 30% – If the continuation managed to accomplish anything, it was to revive memories of the first adventure. The new season takes what was talked about the most and amplifies it twofold. As a result, I am subjected to an excessive amount of torturous scenes, with a convoluted plot that attempts to be explained by the confused Poe, and the action focuses on blood, as always. Unfortunately, none of this is what initially attracted me to Altered Carbon. What I liked is either missing now (Martha Higareda), evolving in a way that does not interest me (Takeshi himself is merely a supporting figure in an uninteresting and unbelievable love story), or almost ridiculed (the construction of the entire world relies on cliché side characters and bizarre plot jumps). The reason why my rating is so low, however, is the visual aspect. It is almost tragic that a series that used to astonish viewers with every other shot voluntarily confines itself to dark halls, warehouses, and caves. In combination with the complete waste of the traditionally irresistible chameleon Simone Missick and the charming Anthony Mackie, I can only shake my head at what exactly the main creator expected hungry audiences to say about this after two years. (03/27/2018)

A sci-fi gem serving up a fanboy's wet dream in nine hours. Altered Carbon has everything a proper series should have and also meets the strictest criteria of the sci-fi genre. Blade Runner-like visuals, Neo Noir detective fiction, Cyberpunk atmosphere, hardcore erotic scenes (no shortage of titties, pussies and even dicks) and, most importantly, dense and nasty gore scenes. Joel Kinnaman plays the main character with grace and the Mexican beauty Martha Higareda is a great cherry on the cake. It's got excellent pacing, great action scenes, nicely dosed twists, a nicely tangled story with multiple lines that fit together like a puzzle at the end, great bad guys, and the twisted world itself is more than impressive. It's very fucked up in places and weaker characters may not be able to stomach it. Torture in virtual reality, you don't want that! And a brothel in space where customers can choose a woman, a man or a 7 year old child is something I've never experienced in exploitation. Satisfying in every way, and if in the second season they go with a program where the dead come back to life to find their killers, then we have something to look forward to again. Number one this year! Scene Highlight: The elevator massacre, the fight with the naked clones, Lizzie in action. 95%. (03/09/2018)

To fuck up and turn upside down an interesting book in this way, that's what I call art. The impressive Bladerunner-esque visuals died on the dubious construct of the show's creators. Let's say the first five or six episodes were still okay (though I had to scratch the book out of my head with sandpaper), but from the seventh episode the whole story goes to total shit. As interesting as it started out, it ended up being a silly, pointless, overblown B-movie. Please change the showrunner's stasis! (07/28/2019)

Altered Carbon is lower league, and knows it. Often it uses this fact to its advantage, because it means it can get away with things that would otherwise be unacceptable. You swallow it in Bay City (the fight with the naked Dichen Lachman clones!). Unlike Morgan’s original idea, the ending is more sensitive, making Kovacs nicer than he should be, but it doesn’t matter that much. The very decent work in terms of special effects is sometimes disrupted by senselessly incomplete shots that they could have easily looked out. In terms of acting, Kinnaman carries the entire show. Ryker’s guise is more charismatic than Kovacs original one, and so it’s good that he doesn’t take it off for the entire series. The action is pretty decent and the atmosphere on Earth of the future is really fine. I’m quite interested if we will be treated to another season and which guise he will assume next time, if there will be a next time. (03/10/2018)