Review: The Exodite Episodes 1-3

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Flame

As the T’au Empire and the Imperium clash over the husk of a war-torn planet, the recently elevated Stealth Shas’vre Lako’ma must lead her team on a vital mission to stop the war. Her orders are to bring back a mysterious figure who has been thwarting T’au efforts to negotiate.

Inferno

Shas’vre Lako’ma’s Stealth Team joins the battle raging on the surface of the maiden world. Against the backdrop of this ongoing conflict, the team must track down their elusive target before he can awaken an ancient and powerful system.

Ashes

Shas’vre Lako’ma finally catches up with her target, but is she too late? As the brutal war rages on around them, the Exodite questions what Lako’ma hopes to achieve while his own schemes finally come to bloody fruition.

Our Take:

Warhammer Plus has released a new limited series to satisfy us Warhammer fans until we get more bloody mini-stories of Hammer & Bolter later on. However, unlike the anthology series, this one appears to have an interconnected narrative arc that consists of only three episodes. While I don’t mind the anthology angle from Hammer & Bolter, I was also pleased to see a show that only focuses on one story. The question is, is it as good as Hammer & Bolter? 

The three-episode arc primarily consists of an ongoing war between the T’au Empire and the human race. Here, we see Lako’ma leading her Stealth team to capture the opposing team’s survivor. This mission leads them to overcome forces more dangerous than the war itself. At first glance, the concept looked to be a combination of Star Wars and Halo regarding the sci-fi elements and the mechanisms. Plus, the war between the opposing forces takes place in both outer space and Earth, so the similarities are pretty noticeable.

But what about the story itself? Was the show able to provide a compelling plot with the devastating struggle in the background? Well, not really. The Exodite is surprisingly an underwhelming knockoff to the other science fiction shows and movies with better executions regarding the narrative structure, voice cast, and animation. It was further affected by its small amount of episodes and length. With only three episodes that last around ten to twelve minutes each, the show was not only rushed at some points, but it also didn’t provide enough substance to make the characters more interesting. Given Lako’ma’s obsession with vengeance and its war-related themes, I’m surprised that the show didn’t offer more than what I got.

However, I will give this series some credit for how it displays its animation style. The Exodite goes for a CGI approach in representing the war-infested settings and the scope of its action sequences. On the one hand, it’s a promising effort in delivering the cinematic appeal of its style and futuristic settings. On the other hand, the animation (produced by Lost Legion Studios) has a few hiccups that prevent it from reaching top-tier quality. The primary reasons for this were that the mouth movements looked stiff at times, and the frame rate in a couple of scenes somehow slowed down a bit.

Overall, The Exodite offers a brand new story in the world of Warhammer. Unfortunately, it lacks the interest needed to get me invested in this part of the universe. The animation looks pretty good regarding its cinematic style. Sadly, it’s not enough to overshadow its short length, uninteresting characters, and bland plot. In other words, I’m better off waiting for more episodes of Hammer & Bolter or at least another series that’s actually worth my time.