Alita: Battle Angel

[jigos]

Did anyone see this movie?

I saw it without knowing anything about it at all, and really, really liked it. It was apparently panned by critics, but audiences just loved it. I thought it had flaws, but, it did some particular things right that more than made up for the problems.

Based on a 1990 manga, Gunnm, Alita has been passion-project for producer James Cameron since being introduced to the story by Guillermo del Toro. Cameron bought rights to the franchise in 1999 and worked on a script for years, but decided to focus on producing Avatar in the mid-2000's. The script for Alita was then given to Cameron's longtime friend, director Robert Rodrigruez, of From Dusk till Dawn and Sin City fame.

Since release in February 2019, the movie's quickly gained a cult following, and fans of the manga are apparently stating it as the best Hollywood adaption of any manga to-date. It was overshadowed at the box office by Captain Marvel, but dedicated fans launched a worldwide campaign to drive earnings and ensure a sequel. The campaign, which is still active, is seeing things like people viewing the movie from ~10 to 100+ times in cinemas, organizing dedicated IMAX screenings, and traveling across countries to catch viewings.

Lynk made a blog post about it here

 

[Kyuu]

I was pleasantly surprised that it kept the original 'ending' of Alita and Yugo's relationship, and even the shot at the end hinted that the love/hate relationship between Alita and Nova would be shown if there was a sequel. I thought it was a pretty good adaptation.

 

[Lynk Former]

Which reminds me, I need to create a Movie Spotlight about Alita... I think I'll do that tomorrow (today) when I wake up. I've got a lot to say about it... but in this thread, I'll say this... I wish more people had watched it, but I understand why most people didn't... adaptations like this don't have a good track record.

...but with Alita... there's hope for more like it in the future.

 

[igyman]

I saw it and I liked it very much. It could have gone without the sequel-baiting and Mahershala Ali was rather underutilized, as his character was pretty much just a placeholder for the actual villain, but overall I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone.

 

[Rebel]

Saw it, like you, knowing nothing about it other than I think catching a little bit of the old anime. Really enjoyed this movie, and of course it was panned by critics, it was a mostly live-action adaptation of a manga (a good one at that from what I'm told) that was about robots and teenage romance. To most critics this was probably "Pacific Rim 3: The Jager is Also a Girl".

REALLY enjoyed the movie. Was honestly expecting it to be rather lame since ya know, most anime adaptations have been, but it was quite impressive. I do agree that I could have done without the "sequel baiting" as igymon calls it, but if there had been any more story crammed in there something of value probably would have been lost.

 

[jigos]

In general, there is actually something very important about this movie: I consider myself a proper fan of it now, and I've been watching promo footage of it - and in seeing this, it has become very clear to me that the producers and creative team behind this move really honor this IP and have immense respect for it and its fans, which have been going on for ~30 years. The movie team put a lot of heart and soul into making a good product, and they themselves became fans of the manga/anime as well.
As a lifelong Star Wars fan who feels burned by LucasFilm/Disney for the Sequel Trilogy (both for the bungled job, and dismal response) I find this just amazing to see. The Alita team approached the movie in the best possible way, and it's just fantastic. I think it's significant for franchises and all fandom in general.

I was pleasantly surprised that it kept the original 'ending' of Alita and Yugo's relationship, and even the shot at the end hinted that the love/hate relationship between Alita and Nova would be shown if there was a sequel. I thought it was a pretty good adaptation.

I should say... I'm avoiding the Manga/Anime in order to boost my experience of any movie sequels should they be confirmed. So.. for the love of God, no spoilers!!

Mahershala Ali was rather underutilized

This is my first time seeing him, and I found him pretty decent. I enjoyed Christoph Waltz in this movie -- but then, I usually do. Dude is an A-grade actor. Found Jennifer Connelly's performance to be so-so (though I always like to see her), but, Rosa Salazar, (who I was also unfamiliar with) was phenomenal. Her performance is the basis for the magic of the entire movie.

REALLY enjoyed the movie. Was honestly expecting it to be rather lame since ya know, most anime adaptations have been, but it was quite impressive.

I started out quite skeptical, (I suppose as a general attitude of critical thinking), but by the end I was sold on the movie in a way I did not see coming. I really hope there will be sequels. Like Lynk mentioned in his blog, I never buy movie home media either, but, I'm actually going to make an exception for this one, to help support the franchise.

 

[igyman]

This is my first time seeing him, and I found him pretty decent.

I saw him in several things so far. He always provided an excellent performance regardless of what kind of character he played. He was a villain in the first season of Luke Cage (the only Marvel show I tried watching) and was arguably the best character in the show, then there's True Detective season 3, where he plays the main character and he start in the Green Book. Oh, yeah, he also voices the uncle of Miles Morales in Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse.

Speaking of, I highly recommend all of the stuff I listed.

I enjoyed Christoph Waltz in this movie -- but then, I usually do.

Yup, Waltz is just awesome. I don't think I ever saw him give a bad performance.

 

[Kyuu]

I don't talk much about things I've watched or read, so unless someone starts a specific topic, I won't be spoiling anything xD

And: Rosa is super adorable.

 

[jigos]

Haha, she totally is. I did see that video previously. Here's another one

I need more Rosa-Alita (Rosalita?) in my life. Honestly, if this movie doesn't get a sequel, I'm gonna riot

 

[jigos]

@Kyuu Have you seen this?

VLIVE is now a part of Weverse

www.vlive.tv

 

[Lynk Former]

That's the thing I love about Rosa... she's having FUN!

There are so many actors out there who are so bland and matter-of-fact that it's so refreshing to come across a person who is having all the fun in the world with the experiences they're having around the world, promoting their movie.

 

[Kyuu]

@Kyuu Have you seen this?

VLIVE is now a part of Weverse

www.vlive.tv

She looks like an adorable kid having fun lol

Also, that interview made me crave some yujacha

 

[jigos]

Best movie-promo interview ever

Pig-hat part was the best lmao. "When you see a cute guy:"

 

[Dama73]

Haven't watched Alita yet, tbh the whole anime eyes thing put me off from the start.

I know its a stupid reason, but it just kinda irked me at the time.

 

[jigos]

Yeah, I can see how that would be off-putting, but, this thing has a 94% audience approval rating - most everyone that actually sees it, loves it.
Call it selection bias, but as you can see, everyone in this thread liked it, too.

It's out of theatres in most parts of the world, but if it happens to still be around near you, I'd recommend giving it a shot.

 

[Rebel]

Haven't watched Alita yet, tbh the whole anime eyes thing put me off from the start.

I know its a stupid reason, but it just kinda irked me at the time.

I had the same feeling at first, but it really works.

 

[Dama73]

I probably will watch it at some point, just been a bit too busy lately to go see it.

 

[Lynk Former]

Someone at work showed me Alita for the first time a year or so ago and the anime eyes put me off. I was really unsure about it.

However, when I finally saw it, I didn't think about her eyes at all because I was too much into what was going on rather than how she looked.

 

[Leon-McNichol]

Yea, my buddy Bruce worked on the pre-vis for it, he was able to finally talk about after theater release. Great adaptation, there will always be some flaw from someone, but overal the CGI was awesome and the storyline was very close to the manga version 1st Arc.

 

[Lynk Former]

the storyline was very close to the manga version 1st Arc.

That's the thing that's most impressive about it, the fact that they tried to come as close as they could to the manga. Of course, there are deviations and I can understand that, but they didn't try to pull a Ghost in the Shell and remix things in such a way that didn't make sense.

 

[Kyuu]

Someone at work showed me Alita for the first time a year or so ago and the anime eyes put me off. I was really unsure about it.

However, when I finally saw it, I didn't think about her eyes at all because I was too much into what was going on rather than how she looked.

I think they made adjustments to the Alita model after it was criticized when the first trailer dropped. To me it seems like better shadowing was done around her eyes to give it more form instead of flat anime eyes.

 

[Lynk Former]

I think they made adjustments to the Alita model after it was criticized when the first trailer dropped. To me it seems like better shadowing was done around her eyes to give it more form instead of flat anime eyes.

Ah, nice. It's good that they listened to criticism because the movie felt very natural.