Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

Just watched the whole "show" and really wish Netflix and other services would stop chopping what essentially could be a 2 hour movie into 6 episodes of 25 minutes (including 3-4 minutes of intro and credits). But I digress, I thought this was a fun watch, thought it was funny and cool to see characters and lore from Ubisoft games mixed into a story. I know people will call it woke and really I am so sick of that word, it has lost all meaning to me. I enjoyed the show, having played a lot of these Ubisoft games made it more enjoyable. Oh one more thing: Bullfrog and Rayman steal the show, they were awesome.

It has its flaws Plot super fast! Characters show up, die in the next moment, twists and turns, dilema and drama, betrayl and so on. All shoved into 6 episodes each 20 minutes BUT each minute entertaining.

- It also KINDA requires you to accept what it does, for example to your favorite characters; if you can't tolerate seing rayman involved in adult themes OR a show being very out of nowhere, straight up insane and not explaining you anything then just don't watch the show, its FULL of it.

- Its pretty to look at MOST OF THE TIMES, Visuals were AMAZING, 2d animation of a big budget, many scenes where the show turns into a straight up sidescroller or dating sim. There is one cheaply made visual and it drags on for 2 episodes (EP4 and 5) You will notice it.

I can't believe Ubisoft would prod such a small anime serie so based in every way, and yet have such a terrible decision making in their own studios.

Lost crown devs ? Fired.

AC, GR, WD, SW Outlaws ? Underwhelming.

For Honor and SIx Siege ? Losts to endless milking.

But then they prod this cartoon, and not only it's one hell shot of adrenaline, it's refreshing good stuff. Like a fresh pair of pants at New Year.

Also, i expected it to be yet again an opportunity taken by Ubislop to make money on Edgerunners success by trying to make a bad copy, but no, Blood Dragon Remix started production BEFORE Edgerunners, and it's two shows that plays in different sports.

Animation is so smooth and nice, the various arts styles are so well done, music is catchy... Scenario is braindead but it's so funny. The amount of references BY THE MINUTE without breaking immersion is an incredible experience.

Shoutout to Bloodbill studio ! Wish you luck !

The show has its good moments. Action and plot twists are a delight to watch.

The show has strong positives in world-building and character development. I hope the pacing will be more streamlined in the future and not a random "plug a bit of everything" as it seems in the first season. The follow-up seasons (if happen) definitely deserve a chance to be better than the first one, given the show solidifies what it wants to be.

As for the criticism: Some characters are too out of place, e.g. The leader of the Eden Army is just too comedic and it doesn't fit well into what Eden represents.

As a person who recognized probably all the Ubisoft characters in the series and did play Far Cry "Blood Dragon", I feel the addition of many was often too stretched and unnecessary. I heavily doubt this show will be made canon, so plugging Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed represented by a frog-assassin felt to be just for the sake of cheap fan-grabbing audience, and even there it's done so cheaply that it felt rather repulsive than "a nice touch". It's far more crude that "Arcane" or "Cyberpunk" adaptions of their games.

"Nice touch" was a dedsec logo. "Nice touch" was an inter-dimensional species design. Maaaaybe, a name "Pagan Min" of one of the characters. But the rest was obviously made because "we have dead/dying franchises by Ubisoft, let's add them somehow into the show. I don't care how, just do it", and it feels by the viewer.

The scenes where the animated characters were turned into humans were on the boring side. I'm not entirely sure what was the purpose of that. Actually, no, I straight up don't get why would they do it at all.

It feels like such a waste. Time and time again, Ubisoft has failed to deliver something truly memorable in their own gaming experiences due to trend surfing. Now that they have one of their best ideas to date, they (or Netflix) cut it down to mere bullet points.

Captain Laserhawk is 6 episodes long. You experience all of the twists and turns of a 2-season, 20 episode TV series in six 25-minute episodes. The show sprints through heartbreak and elation without a second to breathe. You see an entire world that could be explored, only to decide it's pointless by the next 2-3 scenes. You meet a main character, hear them say a few lines and watch them die. It was so easy to fall behind, that I had to rewind several times an episode.

I ended up not caring about any of the characters plights and achievements as a result (besides Rayman). How would I even care if they died? I have nothing to know about them beyond the fact that they're from an old game! Do I need to buy and play the videogame so I can feel sad when a character's life gets snubbed by another character from a different videogame??????

When it comes to themes, I do vibe incredibly well with the cyberpunk aesthetic. Blood Dragon the premier setting for the Ubisoft animated series. If anything, I wish the show wasn't as openly silly as Blood Dragon presented itself.

While I don't really have much to say about the animation quality, the decision of shifting animation styles to reflect a certain videogame aesthetic is cute (even though they don't usually reference Ubisoft games). I personally LOVE the show's brief use of mixed media and it's something I want to see in other animated shows and films. Seeing a real person in an animated environment with animated characters just tickles something in my ape brain.

I seriously wanted to like this project, and I do like a lot of what it has to offer. It's just so undercooked. I'm interested to see if this story goes anywhere in the future, but I can't help but expect Captain Laserhawk to be forgotten once another game publisher steps in with their own realized series.