Alita: Battle Angel

[chasmmi]

Discuss

[Omni]

Too bad for the ending, which was kind of truncated. They left it open for a sequel, which doesn't seem likely to happen, though.

The rest was solid in the non-action moments, and spectacular in the battle ones. And the main character is great.

 

8/10

I'll be back this weekend.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Omni

[CoolioD1]

kind of a shame it all feels a bit rushed. there's a lot of good elements here and fun scenes but because they never really get to breathe it never rises to great like it could have. like i don't know anything about the manga but if you don't wanna make it over 2 hours maybe this could've just been about her becoming a great bounty hunter OR a great motorball player and then saved the other thing for a sequel? idk. the cast is all good (especially the lead) except the boyfriend who sucks. just lame in every scene. he dies, comes back, and then dies again way too quick as well.

 

also when your big sequel tease is... edward norton... good luck with that. 

[Mulder]

21 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

kind of a shame it all feels a bit rushed. there's a lot of good elements here and fun scenes but because they never really get to breathe it never rises to great like it could have. like i don't know anything about the manga but if you don't wanna make it over 2 hours maybe this could've just been about her becoming a great bounty hunter OR a great motorball player and then saved the other thing for a sequel? idk. the cast is all good (especially the lead) except the boyfriend who sucks. just lame in every scene. he dies, comes back, and then dies again way too quick as well.

 

also when your big sequel tease is... edward norton... good luck with that. 

The motorball thing was added from future volumes, not from the initial two which this seems to be adapting mainly so that's probably why it feels weird.

[4815162342]

It's mostly good but is held back by a poorly executed romance subplot and not enough room to breathe, especially in the finale.

 

It really bugged me we didn't get a scene with Ido coming to terms with Chirren's redemption then death (and commiserating with Alita about Hugo). We go straight to time-lapse photography and an abrupt ending.

[dashrendar44]

I won't copy/paste my novel-like thoughts from the Spoiler thread.

 

It's a frustrating movie, great cyberpunk imagery when Rodriguez takes its time to make us discover this dystopic world through the POV of the endearing main protagonist (Alita's awakening is the best sequence imo, the dazzling Motorball race, Alita's second confrontation with psycho goon Grewishka which is hardcore for a PG-13 movie as there's a lot of dismemberment and body horror ) but otherwise some scenes land with terrible thuds and clunky lines, a bit po-faced like manga/anime can sound like taken at face value. The script is trying to cram too much under a 2 hours timeframe when it's clearly a 2H30 movie being chunked into pieces. In that regard, Hugo's storyline is the blatant weakness of that script's structural flow which gets hokey and messy past Alita discovering Ido's secret.

 

Waltz plays aforementionned Dyson Ido, a cybernetic doctor, Alita's surrogate father figure as Alita's Gepetto, his function being an exposition dump of a character, even though it gets a bit goofy when he's revealed to be secretely a "Hunter Warrior". (Some kind of bounty hunters in the world of Iron City). Ali is kind of wasted and underdeveloped as Vector, an Iron City crime lord. The most egregious is Chiren, Jennifer Connelly's character who has a lot of backstory and interesting moral conflicts but Rodriguez doesn't seem to be that interested to explore her character beyond the surface.

 

Salazar gives her all to bring life and spunky energy to the titled CG character going from naive to hard-headed warrior. She's truly the heart of the movie that lightens up the proceeding, the anti-Scarjo in GITS.

 

The ending is such a case of blue balls, the script is structured around a hypothetic showdown with mysterious big baddie Nova, some  kind of mad scientist looking big boss played by an uncredited Edward Norton cashing his paycheck. Like we're not given what his intentions are, what he's supposed to be in Zalem or Iron City (A tyrant? A Frankenstein-like doctor serving further interests? Why should I care?), why Alita is obsessed with killing him (but does not do it by the end of the movie leaving that for a hypothetic sequel that may never come).

 

Needless to say, it's the best Robert Rodriguez movie since Desperado and From Dusk Til Dawn as Cameron put pressure on him to get out of his half-assed comfort zone and commit 200% to an epic scope endeavour. (I loathe Sin City).

 

B- for Salazar's performance.

Edited February 15, 2019 by dashrendar44

[Morieris]

When this movie shines, oh, it shines. Mainly in the action, and this was the best DBOX experience I've done (the previous being Skull Island and Last Jedi).

 

It's when we're reminded - forcibly - that Alita is a teenage girl with the hokey, stand-in Hugo that it slows down - But since they had to keep the movie relatively brisk (almost too brisk near the end), it never lasts too long.

 

There's more story to tell here, and I really want to see it, because I had a blast with this. Like, 80% of a blast.

[vovin]

5 hours ago, Morieris said:

It's when we're reminded - forcibly - that Alita is a teenage girl with the hokey, stand-in Hugo that it slows down 

It's a shame because the romance arc could have worked if they cast a different actor and maybe rewrote some lines of dialogue. They nailed the casting of pretty much every other character, but missed the mark on Hugo. Even the very minor characters like Nyssiana (played by the wonderful Eiza Gonzales) are such gems.

[IndustriousAngel]

7/10, B+

straightforward action without too much irony, and emotional too - I liked how the movie carries its heart on its tongue and doesn't try to become more than it is. Would have got 8/10, A- from me if not for the ending, they should have called it "part one" - as it is, it just grinds to a stop in the middle of the tracks.

[Barnack]

Lot of issues, a mix of too rushed part (Connelly character turn around being a big example of that) and yet feel like we do not have all the story at the same time, bad mix.

 

It feel a lot like an adaptation and not writing has a movie from the start.

 

Did the hidden faced villain looked a lot like James Cameron on purpose ?

 

Anyway a lot of elite stuff in there, lot of money, some good sequence that make it worth a watch and a sequel imo, the lead character is just a lot of fun.

 

But despite the budget and not telling all of the story, we still have a lot but really a lot of people talking exposition, some dynamic enough walking in the city for the first time and the fish out of the water cheap trick to do the exposition still have a pass, but some of Dyson Ido explaining her past sitting down felt like didn't had the money they needed and wanted for this.

[SLAM!]

I gave this film an A. Yes, some of the parts were rushed together. But in the end, I think the film's central performance and stunning visuals make up for its flaws. And while I don't have that good of a "this is bad" radar, it never really occurred to me that Keean Johnson's peformance was bad. He wasn't revolutionary, but I don't believe that he was outright terrible. So, yeah, when the film shines, it shines, and I believe tjat is enough to overcome its flaws. More people need to see this film.

[Krissykins]

Agreed about the ending, made it feel like another bloody part 1. 

 

Apart from that and the cheesy/silly moments, the head falling into the clouds made me laugh and it was hard to get emotionally attached at all.

 

But great effects and fight choreography. 

[Krissykins]

This was much better than Ghost in the Shell, IMO. 

 

But did anyone else feel like her would-be boyfriend set her up to enter that tournament knowing they would all try and kill her, yet she never found out about it or got to confront him? Weird choice. I was glad he died. 

[Rorschach]

Saw this last night in IMAX 3D. Probably one of the better films I've seen use the format.

 

Anyways, me and the friend that I saw it with both agreed it was really fun time. Not perfect by any means but still a really solid time. Most of my gripes come from the obvious sequel-bait that's set-up in the third act that really didn't need to be there, some areas where the film feels like its trying to bite just a little bit too much than it can chew (could've been a half hour longer and I wouldn't complain), and a somewhat underdeveloped romance (this part felt somewhat sidelined for a good portion of the film despite given quite a big focus in other parts).

 

Aside from those parts weighing the film down a bit, I found it hard not to get sucked into the world of the film. The production design and visual effects are outstanding here. Iron City feels like a real, believable place, not just some CGI back-drop. It definitely feels like a place that's had a lot of history and backstory to it and easily stands out from a lot of other fictional futuristic cities in films. The visuals are also really on-point. The character of Alita is easily the best out of the bunch and the work done on her design is nothing short of incredible. It's one thing to make it look convincing but add Rosa Salazar's charismatic performance onto it and the character comes to life in an extraordinary way. The designs on a lot of the other cyborg characters are fairly unique and memorable as well (we need more Jeff Fahey and his four robo doggos in the sequel please). The battle scenes (the Motorball sequence especially) were truly breathtaking to witness on the big screen. Technically, this film is on-point to a tee. 

 

The writing is probably the weakest aspect of the film but it didn't really drag it down all that much for me. Like I said before, the film just needed a bit more time to breath and let the moments sink-in. This is especially evident towards the very end where it felt like everything was trying to wrap itself up so quickly that some of the emotional impact was lost on me. Some of that comes down to the fact that the romance between Alita and Hugo wasn't especially engaging. It was tolerable enough that I didn't find it egregiously bad like some other people did (helps that Rosa Salazar is just so damn good in this film) but yeah, I'll agree it was undercooked.

 

In the end, I'm just very glad that Rodriguez and Cameron had so much passion and respect for the source material that it shows in the final product. This is for certain one of the better live-action manga adaptations we've gotten so far and it is a giant step in the right direction. 

 

B+

[baumer]

Loved it from start to finish.  Th story of discovery is always fun.  This had elements of Running Man, Matrix, Terminator and a few other films.  I have given myself more than 24 hours to process it all and I'm comfortable saying it's one of my favourite films of the last 2 years.

 

9.5/10

[altbum]

8.5/10.  Went into the (nearly empty) theater with low expectations and really enjoyed the movie.  Epic in Imax 3D. 

[dashrendar44]

After rewatching it, I'm bumping my rating from B- to A like Alita.

Edited February 27, 2019 by dashrendar44

[tawasal]

On 2/14/2019 at 9:22 PM, CoolioD1 said:

kind of a shame it all feels a bit rushed. there's a lot of good elements here and fun scenes but because they never really get to breathe it never rises to great like it could have. like i don't know anything about the manga but if you don't wanna make it over 2 hours maybe this could've just been about her becoming a great bounty hunter OR a great motorball player and then saved the other thing for a sequel? idk. the cast is all good (especially the lead) except the boyfriend who sucks. just lame in every scene. he dies, comes back, and then dies again way too quick as well.

 

also when your big sequel tease is... edward norton... good luck with that. 

That whole love story and her fallen in love with a guy she barely knows seems to be rushed and quite dull. 

[IronJimbo]

On 2/18/2019 at 8:18 AM, Christmas baumer said:

Loved it from start to finish.  Th story of discovery is always fun.  This had elements of Running Man, Matrix, Terminator and a few other films.  I have given myself more than 24 hours to process it all and I'm comfortable saying it's one of my favourite films of the last 2 years.

 

9.5/10

Baumer seal of approval what I always like to see.

[Omni]

On 2/27/2019 at 11:10 PM, dashrendar44 said:

After rewatching it, I'm bumping my rating from B- to A like Alita.

Same here. It's definitely a movie you need to see more than once, like all great peculiar movies,

Also, I've started to love the "suspended"final: it would have made absolutely no sense for Alita to accomplish her mission in such a short period of time and apparently so easily. The only way to make this happen all on chapter 1, would have been making a 6 hrs long movie, something you just can't sell to the common moviegoer. And Alita is the Battle Angel, she can't just understand what/who she really is and then stop fighting (because she won her war) the week after, that would have denaturalized her right after the discovery of her true nature. The cut of the tear in the ending is what ultimately legitimates this finale.