Alita: Battle Angel (2018)

chaos · Jul 12, 2019

Yeah, this was pretty good. Only real complaint, aside from the ending, is that they don't really flesh out the other hunter-killer cyborgs and the relationship they have with the dude from Moonlight is not really clear at all. And I guess the motivation isn't clear. Like, they want to go up to the city, but why? Whatever is up there that they want to be a part of is not made clear, just a general sense of it being awesome. I don't think any of those issues with the story are really dealbreakers though.

I hope Rodriguez and Cameron are able to make at least a sequel, I like the world. But Cameron has like 14 Avatar movies nobody asked for to make so even though there are rumors of a sequel on the internet it seems doubtful.

Goatface · Jul 12, 2019

worldwide did slightly worse than Pacific Rim, $411m ($190m budget) vs $404m ($170m budget)
so there is a chance it could get another one, would think the sequel would be a lot cheaper to make.

Siliconemelons · Jul 12, 2019

Just re-read the OVA wiki and watched some... I forgot how short and fast the OVA was.

Yeah rollerball is new and replaced "the arena" the brain and spine eating/harvesting was somewhat censored and changed.

I would say the movie did the initial character dev of alita better than the Ova where she just, poor, one scene she's a head, next boom.

They did add the flashbacks and prior history and the space ship.

They actually added manga stuff the Ova left out in some places.

Still one of the best anime adaptations

Bondurant · Jul 13, 2019

I didin't like it at all. Most characters felt cardboard dummies and setup was kind of interesting but seriously lacked background writing. CGI was subpar for a $200m blockbuster and production probably cut a lot of somewhat interesting scenes. I'd rather watch a spinoff featuring the Hunter-Warrior guys than cringing about that coming of age convenient amnesiac blunder.

nu_11 · Jul 14, 2019

Movie was way better than I thought it would be.

Fucker · Jul 15, 2019

nu_11 said:
Movie was way better than I thought it would be.

It's pretty solid. Neither great nor bad nor disappointing. Slim chance it'll get a sequel, though.

Mahes · Jul 15, 2019

I give it a 5/10. It was not a waste of my time to download and watch it.

Siliconemelons · Jul 15, 2019

So I have been thinking about this and re watching the OVA.

This was one of the "first wave" of anime movies - the entire blood and tits! In my America? In my "cartoons!" Was still a fresh draw of people wanting to see it and tons of new fandom popping up to "white knight it" and expound upon the greatness of the Eastern form of story telling.

Like many of the others, it's the "first" exposure to either this environment or to this general story. So I think it has a lot of rose colored glasses going on - even for my own self, I "remembered" this big sweeping anime that must of been record of lodoss war duration and stuff... but no...its 2 30 min episodes....and very fast cut scene cut scene with tons of the "you the viewer gets to put together the happening between scenes" thing Animes tend to do a lot.

Some changes were good - the change from brain and spine eating for instance.

The relationship actually had MORE development in the live action than the OVA.

Some... kind of indifferent - like the arena for rollerball.

Aychamo BanBan · Jul 15, 2019

I watched this today to see if I was wrong about it. I still feel this is a really shit movie. All of the acting is horrible. The boyfriend is possibly the worst actor on earth. The lead is terrible. Christoph Waltz can't even save this, and Jennifer Connelly may as well be a robot. The plot is retarded. "Oh hey here's a magical spaceship we found that's been here for hundreds of years, and no one has thought to push in the big handle, oh btw your magical upgrade armor happens to be inside." The whole movie is about getting to the floating island but it doesn't even happen. Of course the boyfriend is someone who strips robots but falls in love with one and then becomes one. The whole movie looks like it's shot with year 2000 green screen and is otherwise a CGI suck fest. Alita is at least fuckable so I give it some points for that. I agree with 4-5/10. It's better than Human Centipede 2, and worse than most other movies that came out in the last few years.

rhinohelix · Jul 16, 2019

This is one of few big anime for which I hadn't ever seen the OVA; I intended to see this in the theater but that never worked out such that today I finally got to watch this. I am shocked by the comments here that the reception is as mixed as it is: Boozecube seems to be entirely correct in his assessment. I enjoyed it.

Afterwards I watched the OVA and am surprised how shot-for-shot it was in places; many of the pacing issues I thought it had were related to the strict adherence to the OVA's story (mostly related to the final cable climb). I could care less about the romance; it was there in the OVA/original story so it was going the show up here.

With a character as strong as Alita, emotional attachments are really key weaknesses, so I knew one of either Ido or Keanu Gordon-Levitt were destined for the Scrap Heap,

so I was actually glad it was him. The actor himself wasn't really terrible, as such. It's literally live action Anime, ffs and the role was what it was.

The rest of the cast gave well-enough performances, with Christof Waltz once again showing why he is worth whatever money for which he asks; Rose Salazar gave a great performance as Alita; I never get tired of seeing Mahershala Ali; Jennifer Connelly seemed overly influenced by the character from the OVA, including the frame rate.

Falxy-US said:
I watched this today to see if I was wrong about it. I still feel this is a really shit movie. All of the acting is horrible. The boyfriend is possibly the worst actor on earth. The lead is terrible. Christoph Waltz can't even save this, and Jennifer Connelly may as well be a robot. The plot is retarded. "Oh hey here's a magical spaceship we found that's been here for hundreds of years, and no one has thought to push in the big handle, oh btw your magical upgrade armor happens to be inside." The whole movie is about getting to the floating island but it doesn't even happen. Of course the boyfriend is someone who strips robots but falls in love with one and then becomes one. The whole movie looks like it's shot with year 2000 green screen and is otherwise a CGI suck fest. Alita is at least fuckable so I give it some points for that. I agree with 4-5/10. It's better than Human Centipede 2, and worse than most other movies that came out in the last few years.

I can't tell if this was written as a submission to the Onion or a symptom of "if its not great, its terrible" issue that plagues 2019 affluenenza. Let's pretend it's intended as satire and just move on.

Aychamo BanBan · Jul 16, 2019

rhinohelix said:
This is one of few big anime for which I hadn't ever seen the OVA; I intended to see this in the theater but that never worked out such that today I finally got to watch this. I am shocked by the comments here that the reception is as mixed as it is: Boozecube seems to be entirely correct in his assessment. I enjoyed it.

Afterwards I watched the OVA and am surprised how shot-for-shot it was in places; many of the pacing issues I thought it had were related to the strict adherence to the OVA's story (mostly related to the final cable climb). I could care less about the romance; it was there in the OVA/original story so it was going the show up here.

With a character as strong as Alita, emotional attachments are really key weaknesses, so I knew one of either Ido or Keanu Gordon-Levitt were destined for the Scrap Heap,

so I was actually glad it was him. The actor himself wasn't really terrible, as such. It's literally live action Anime, ffs and the role was what it was.

The rest of the cast gave well-enough performances, with Christof Waltz once again showing why he is worth whatever money for which he asks; Rose Salazar gave a great performance as Alita; I never get tired of seeing Mahershala Ali; Jennifer Connelly seemed overly influenced by the character from the OVA, including the frame rate.

I can't tell if this was written as a submission to the Onion or a symptom of "if its not great, its terrible" issue that plagues 2019 affluenenza. Let's pretend it's intended as satire and just move on.

Hi. It’s 2019. We can have different opinions. Don’t be insulting just because we disagree. I enjoyed your review. I didn’t compare it to the anime or OVA (no idea what that is.). I reviewed it as a stand alone movie.

Erronius · Jul 16, 2019

Falxy-US said:
Hi. It’s 2019. We can have different opinions. Don’t be insulting just because we disagree. I enjoyed your review. I didn’t compare it to the anime or OVA (no idea what that is.). I reviewed it as a stand alone movie.

I'd actually be curious what you would think after reading the manga up to what the movie covered, at least.

I *THINK* I've read everything, including the weird offshoot stuff, up to at least the beginning of the Martian chronicles part. And...it's a lot to take in.

The OVA seemed really condensed to me. The overall plot of the Manga meanders a lot, so in some ways it might be a good thing. It probably didn't help that the story stopped, then restarted years later. Some retconning occurred. But even then, up to the end of the Motorball arc, there was a LOT of ground to cover.

This IP is one of the ones where people get really divided over it. As you can see on this page, and others.

I'm not sure who has active scans right now. I think Crazyankan / Rippers did a lot of Scans/Translation and there's probably downloads out there. Just seems like every few years scans would disappear and reappear, but I do remember who watermarked the scans. I think Rippers has a forum...I've never browsed there...but they probably have stuff there. Point is...if you haven't read the manga, I'd suggest finding some scans and reading some first. Then maybe buy some print copy stuff. I haven't checked in years, and there were a number of different competing box sets and collections out there last I checked.

Lanx · Jul 16, 2019

Erronius said:
I'd actually be curious what you would think after reading the manga up to what the movie covered, at least.

I *THINK* I've read everything, including the weird offshoot stuff, up to at least the beginning of the Martian chronicles part. And...it's a lot to take in.

The OVA seemed really condensed to me. The overall plot of the Manga meanders a lot, so in some ways it might be a good thing. It probably didn't help that the story stopped, then restarted years later. Some retconning occurred. But even then, up to the end of the Motorball arc, there was a LOT of ground to cover.

This IP is one of the ones where people get really divided over it. As you can see on this page, and others.

I'm not sure who has active scans right now. I think Crazyankan / Rippers did a lot of Scans/Translation and there's probably downloads out there. Just seems like every few years scans would disappear and reappear, but I do remember who watermarked the scans. I think Rippers has a forum...I've never browsed there...but they probably have stuff there. Point is...if you haven't read the manga, I'd suggest finding some scans and reading some first. Then maybe buy some print copy stuff. I haven't checked in years, and there were a number of different competing box sets and collections out there last I checked.

why the fuck are the kansans the ones that read the manga, but yea go read mars chronicle, you can finally find out Alitas true true true origin.

No, i haven't watched this movie, i don't want to spoil the manga feel

Aychamo BanBan · Jul 17, 2019

Erronius said:
I'd actually be curious what you would think after reading the manga up to what the movie covered, at least.

I *THINK* I've read everything, including the weird offshoot stuff, up to at least the beginning of the Martian chronicles part. And...it's a lot to take in.

The OVA seemed really condensed to me. The overall plot of the Manga meanders a lot, so in some ways it might be a good thing. It probably didn't help that the story stopped, then restarted years later. Some retconning occurred. But even then, up to the end of the Motorball arc, there was a LOT of ground to cover.

This IP is one of the ones where people get really divided over it. As you can see on this page, and others.

I'm not sure who has active scans right now. I think Crazyankan / Rippers did a lot of Scans/Translation and there's probably downloads out there. Just seems like every few years scans would disappear and reappear, but I do remember who watermarked the scans. I think Rippers has a forum...I've never browsed there...but they probably have stuff there. Point is...if you haven't read the manga, I'd suggest finding some scans and reading some first. Then maybe buy some print copy stuff. I haven't checked in years, and there were a number of different competing box sets and collections out there last I checked.

I appreciate all that, but I just am not into any kind of comic books or anything. And I apologize if calling manga a comic book is insulting, I just don't read anything like that. I bought the graphic novel for Watchmen but couldn't get more than a few pages in. I think I'm very lazy when it comes to my entertainment and I just want to veg out and be fed it in a movie format. Honestly the last fiction I read was LOTR back when the movies were coming out in the early 2000s. And I think I read the Hobbit in 2013-2014. But otherwise nothing.

Something about the Alita movie.. Something just felt cheap or off. Like the sets, etc, they all just looked so fake. Like there's a scene where Waltz and Connelly are walking and it just looks like pure green screen, and there's a scene where Hobie Buchannon from Baywatch pulls up on his motorcycle thing, it just looks so off to me. I don't know, I just found the whole movie weak and off putting. Just my opinion!

And like... I'm always interested in how movies deliver exposition. In this one, it was always just Christoph Waltz revealing more stuff about Alita. It felt a lot like "Lady in the Water."

Siliconemelons · Jul 17, 2019

To me the movie was actually "smaller" feel of the city vs OVA(aka the anime)

For instance the ruined building that was so pivotal was just, sitting there down the block... while the anime it felt "far" and on the outskirts etc...

For a huge dystopian city it felt small in the movie and we kept re visiting the same few places.

Office/home - out front - Hunter bar - place for the bad guys to talk - ruined building - rollerball arena

That's about it.

And yes, the end is fast in the anime and movie- he got up, said f-it and wondered up to get his ass sliced up, boom bang.

As for "the relationship" the movie actually gave it more time and depth, the anime was "hey, I am fixing your windmil- wanna go to a ruin and look at the city?" "Hey, I love you" "uhh okay, let's go"

a c i d.f l y · Jul 17, 2019

Finally watched this. I've started rating movies by how quickly I pause it to have a smoke, and how many smokes I'll have throughout the movie. I think I got in 3, but didn't hit the first one until 45 minutes in. Also by how likely or how often I might be interested in watching it again. By comparison, Ready Player One I took my first smoke 10 minutes in and will likely never re-watch it. Infinity War I will watch the whole thing in one (repeat) sitting. I'll probably watch this one again for the 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos experience alone.

Movie is interesting, I guess, I really liked the girl playing Alita and of course Christopher Waltz's character, but everyone else was fucking insufferably bad actors trope like characters/villains. They did try to make you sympathetic towards douche metal goatee guy, but he's just an asshole discount Jude Law. I especially didn't like the emasculated "love interest". What a bitch that guy was. Hmm, what else did I like... the animation. A lot of the parts on the rollerball stadium almost overcame the uncanny valley.

You're right about it feeling "small". Is the rollerball stadium right next goddamn door? And then you show this MASSIVE sprawling floating city and it takes like 2 seconds to travel anywhere with no transitions. That's just bad movie making. Story was trope-y as fuck, but that didn't really bother me. What bothered me was the likelihood of a head disconnected from the body working after being chopped off and transported across those vast distances without any sort of sterile or medical organ protected transportation device (a cooler, maybe?). I guess that's how it works in their world, since everyone is basically a head in a fucking jar, but that shit only works in cartoons because it's pretty dumb.

Last thing I can say is the film falls victim to trying to do too many things at once, and introduce too many villains to pad run time. You know an easier way to pad run time? Make the world feel more real by introducing transitions, or include the concept of time passing (not montages). If this movie was 100% Alita and Christopher Waltz it would have been amazing.

Siliconemelons · Jul 17, 2019

It is tropey because it is a trope - its like LOTR is so basic "high fantasy" /lesigh

I am not putting it on par with LOTR - I am just saying, this, akira, cowboy bebop, trigun, macross... a lot of those "early" anime's were what set the stage of their type of settings and stories - so they are... a trope now.

Overall I still place it as a good movie and in comparison one of the best anime->live action adaptations... what others are there to do? DragonBall? AeonFlux? Anime adaptations have the success rate of video game movies (as in a way, they really are...kinda the same)

I do wonder how the cowboy bebop film is going to end up? or was it a TV show...anywho..

a c i d.f l y · Jul 17, 2019

Xadion said:
It is tropey because it is a trope - its like LOTR is so basic "high fantasy" /lesigh

I am not putting it on par with LOTR - I am just saying, this, akira, cowboy bebop, trigun, macross... a lot of those "early" anime's were what set the stage of their type of settings and stories - so they are... a trope now.

Overall I still place it as a good movie and in comparison one of the best anime->live action adaptations... what others are there to do? DragonBall? AeonFlux? Anime adaptations have the success rate of video game movies (as in a way, they really are...kinda the same)

I do wonder how the cowboy bebop film is going to end up? or was it a TV show...anywho..

Macross? I'd also love a Ninja Scrolls movie. Mix Kill Bill with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon... that sounds fuckin' awesome.

a_skeleton_05 · Jul 17, 2019

I liked it. It had some flaws but was a rather good anime adaptation otherwise. It's something I'd like my nieces to watch when they're old enough to see a good strong female protagonist without the cringy girlpowah bullshit.

a c i d.f l y · Jul 18, 2019

Dom said:
I liked it. It had some flaws but was a rather good anime adaptation otherwise. It's something I'd like my nieces to watch when they're old enough to see a good strong female protagonist without the cringy girlpowah bullshit.

Now that you mention it, that was half true. She and her presentation were fine. How the males were treated as pieces of shit was not so much.

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