I love that expression she had in the panel just before the bar fight started after pissing Zapan off.
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Alita: Battle Angel |OT| Mobile Suit Gunnm.
- Thread starter Old Man Spike
- Start date
Alita's main flaw is its lack of focus in the antagonists department. There are too many of them and they are not developed enough, including the main villain, Vector, played by the awesome Mahershala Ali.
Here are the main villains:
-Vector
-Edward Norton
-Jennifer Connelly
-The big Russian cyborg
-Ed Skrein
That's five fucking villains.
Excise Jennifer from the movie, and save Edward Norton for one scene at the very end of the movie. Fill in the void with more development for Vector.
Vector needs to be fleshed out almost just as much as Alita or Christoph Waltz. Villains are always at their most interesting when they oppose the main character in some way in their characterization. Alita is innocent, trusting and sees beauty in every facet of the world. She is cared for by Waltz, who is has lost a daughter. He copes with his lost by caring for Alita.
Make Vector a shadow of that. He's a father who lost a son. He never got over his loss. He shut himself out from the rest of the world. He distrusts everyone. He tries to satisfy his emotional needs with money, fame and materialistic enterprises. Maybe he has a dog and doesn't even care for it. He has no one in his life because of his own actions.
The conflict tying Alita and Vector needs to be personal. Make Vector kill Hugo at the movie's midpoint. At the end of the movie, the audience needs to have a perfect image of who Vector is, instead of the shallow stereotypical antagonist we got. When Alita kills Vector, it is the culmination of her quest against him instead of the half-step towards killing Edward Norton.
Fix that, and you transform a 3/5 movie into a 5/5 movie. It would have been so simple, too.
Here are the main villains:
-Vector
-Edward Norton
-Jennifer Connelly
-The big Russian cyborg
-Ed Skrein
That's five fucking villains.
Excise Jennifer from the movie, and save Edward Norton for one scene at the very end of the movie. Fill in the void with more development for Vector.
Vector needs to be fleshed out almost just as much as Alita or Christoph Waltz. Villains are always at their most interesting when they oppose the main character in some way in their characterization. Alita is innocent, trusting and sees beauty in every facet of the world. She is cared for by Waltz, who is has lost a daughter. He copes with his lost by caring for Alita.
Make Vector a shadow of that. He's a father who lost a son. He never got over his loss. He shut himself out from the rest of the world. He distrusts everyone. He tries to satisfy his emotional needs with money, fame and materialistic enterprises. Maybe he has a dog and doesn't even care for it. He has no one in his life because of his own actions.
The conflict tying Alita and Vector needs to be personal. Make Vector kill Hugo at the movie's midpoint. At the end of the movie, the audience needs to have a perfect image of who Vector is, instead of the shallow stereotypical antagonist we got. When Alita kills Vector, it is the culmination of her quest against him instead of the half-step towards killing Edward Norton.
Fix that, and you transform a 3/5 movie into a 5/5 movie. It would have been so simple, too.
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Saw this back to back with CM and Alita just edges it for me.
Agree with AuthenticM about ABA having too many antagonists. Also felt like there were too many sub-plots under—explored (e.g. Hugo's gang stuff).
Often felt like a live anime tho - especially speech cadence, which to me sounded very close to an English dub track. Glad it didn't have any 'wacky' comedy too.
Agree with AuthenticM about ABA having too many antagonists. Also felt like there were too many sub-plots under—explored (e.g. Hugo's gang stuff).
Often felt like a live anime tho - especially speech cadence, which to me sounded very close to an English dub track. Glad it didn't have any 'wacky' comedy too.
People say Vector needed more screen time, but from what I recall from the manga he didn't appear all that often there - he's a power broker kind of guy, being inaccessible by default comes with the territory. The movie was actually generous in the screen time it gave him, unless I'm forgetting something about the manga after all these years.
The way they handled Kinuba though was kind of a testament for the adaptation work put into this to help streamline the movie - in the original he was into arena combat, not Motorball (which was introduced later in the story), and Makaku takes over his whole body directly, while in the movie that acquisition gets to show Hugo at work and how Vector deals with unexpected interference in his plans in particular, and how merit and ingenuity alone won't ensure success in that setting ("no one is greater than the game").
And then there's all the fans using t-shirts with his name and number, which hint at the kind of hope the character likely represented, even by the time he was out of commission.
I don't recall Kinuba being in the OVA, so that was a neat surprise to see how such a minor manga character got used.
I also kinda loved the implication that Ido contributed indirectly to keep the streets safe by giving hunter-warriors free repairs - in a society that's clearly pushed into savagely competitive mindset for the benefit of higher powers, it was a neat touch seeing that kind of small but important bit of mutual aid being hinted at.
The whole bar sequence, up to the exit from the bar, really is kind of a nice microcosm of all of the movie's weaknesses (corny lines) and strengths (neat bits of dialog and great action).
It kinda help but by then Alita/Rally is wearing something that more closely resembles her classic manga self, something that progresses neatly throughout the movie.
Not sure if I'll go watch again today... There's a bit of a movement online about this, but I really want to help this movie to get a sequel or more, the TUNED/Barjack arc on the big screen would be amazing (I wonder if James Cameron could get George Miller to direct that...)
The way they handled Kinuba though was kind of a testament for the adaptation work put into this to help streamline the movie - in the original he was into arena combat, not Motorball (which was introduced later in the story), and Makaku takes over his whole body directly, while in the movie that acquisition gets to show Hugo at work and how Vector deals with unexpected interference in his plans in particular, and how merit and ingenuity alone won't ensure success in that setting ("no one is greater than the game").
And then there's all the fans using t-shirts with his name and number, which hint at the kind of hope the character likely represented, even by the time he was out of commission.
I don't recall Kinuba being in the OVA, so that was a neat surprise to see how such a minor manga character got used.
I also kinda loved the implication that Ido contributed indirectly to keep the streets safe by giving hunter-warriors free repairs - in a society that's clearly pushed into savagely competitive mindset for the benefit of higher powers, it was a neat touch seeing that kind of small but important bit of mutual aid being hinted at.
The whole bar sequence, up to the exit from the bar, really is kind of a nice microcosm of all of the movie's weaknesses (corny lines) and strengths (neat bits of dialog and great action).
It kinda help but by then Alita/Rally is wearing something that more closely resembles her classic manga self, something that progresses neatly throughout the movie.
Not sure if I'll go watch again today... There's a bit of a movement online about this, but I really want to help this movie to get a sequel or more, the TUNED/Barjack arc on the big screen would be amazing (I wonder if James Cameron could get George Miller to direct that...)
Yeah, he really wasn't in it much, and even thought he was moreso one of the main villains in the OVA (due to his involvement with Cherin), got even more screen time on the movie itself.
That doesn't really matter for the adaptation. An adaptation can't, or shouldn't, be a 1:1 thing, especially considering we're talking about two different mediums. The story that Alita-the-movie wanted to tell needed to have a sharper focus in the antagonist department. As it is, it juggled too many. Take one, either Vector, Ed Skrein or big Russian cyborg, and focus on him, while the other two are relegated to support roles. I took Vector because the movie is presenting him as the main bad guy, but any other one could have worked.
To be fair, Zapan also combined the role of another character. There was a different hunter-warrior that went after Hugo, originally. So that makes sense, since it's kind of needed. I didn't see Cherin as a "villain" really, more just a bit of a plot device.
Depending on which speech you're referring to, I absolutely loved one of them, and it stuck in my head more than almost anything else from the movie: (scene spoilers)
I loved the moment when she wiped the blood on herself and said, "I will not stand by in the presence of EVIL" after the dog was crushed. That was an amazing encapsulation of her character and an angel-like quality.
I don't mind that moment that much, is the speech previous to that than I didn't like
two people wouldn't stop talking in the theater until I told them to shut the fuck up so I missed a lot of what was going on the beginning. i might go see it again to fill in this blanks.
some end of the movie questions
some end of the movie questions
who's brain and eyes were in the box? ido's ex wife? why and for what reason? edit: oh it's chiren. is this the only way to zalem?
so nova wants alita dead by any means necessary, but will totally allow her to take a ship up zalem? edit: if the only way to zalem is by putting your brain and eyes in a box, does alita have to do this now that she's ascending?
were mars people all cyborgs? is alita a.i.?
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1. Yes, the organs belonged to Chiren. Vector explains that it's the only way for someone below to get to Zalem, because Nova needs organs for experimentation. The manga has a lot of body horror involving Nova's work. Supposedly, becoming final champion at Motorball is another way to get to Zalem.
2. I'm speculating because the movie doesn't follow the manga, but presumably Alita believes that by becoming final champion she will be sent up whole and once there can find and kill Nova. Or, she believes that if they double-cross her she can fight her way through it and kill Nova. Basically, she just wants to kill Nova and the only path open to her is becoming Motorball final champion. But the movie ends with her debuting in the Champions League, which is where the sequel (sigh...) would follow up.
3. According to the manga Martians are human and cyborg just like on Earth, although the technology in cyborgs evolved differently. The second part of your question becomes more complicated in later volumes of the manga, but the short answer is no, Alita does have a brain. She's not A.I.
2. I'm speculating because the movie doesn't follow the manga, but presumably Alita believes that by becoming final champion she will be sent up whole and once there can find and kill Nova. Or, she believes that if they double-cross her she can fight her way through it and kill Nova. Basically, she just wants to kill Nova and the only path open to her is becoming Motorball final champion. But the movie ends with her debuting in the Champions League, which is where the sequel (sigh...) would follow up.
3. According to the manga Martians are human and cyborg just like on Earth, although the technology in cyborgs evolved differently. The second part of your question becomes more complicated in later volumes of the manga, but the short answer is no, Alita does have a brain. She's not A.I.
I've been thinking about how the rest of the story could be adapted in future sequels (I know, I know; don't rub it in...), and to my mind the best course for a trilogy would be:
-the second movie would overlap the Motorball/Jashugan story arc with the Zapan/Berserker arc. Parallel Alita's single-minded quest for revenge against Nova with Zapan's single-minded quest for revenge against Alita, showing how hatred can consume and destroy you if you let it. Zapan gets defeated early on, is saved and augmented by Nova using the berserker body that belonged to Gelda, comes back and kills Ido after Alita loses the championship to Jashugan who helps her see beyond her vengeance, Alita has to protect the city from Zapan and sacrifices herself but wakes up on Zalem where Nova makes her an offer: work for me, become a Tuned and I'll restore Ido to life.
-the third movie would overlap the Tuned/Figure arc with the Den/Zalem arc and end Alita's saga with the abbreviated ending, largely ignoring Last Order and Mars Chronicle. Alita in the Imaginos body now works as an assassin for Nova, targeting the Barjack army marching on Zalem led by Den/Kaos. She meets Figure on the way, he helps her get to Den but they're captured, Den/Kaos unlocks the Imaginos body's true power freeing her from Nova's control, Den/Kaos wants to knock Zalem out of the sky using recovered URM technology and sees the Iron City below as collateral damage, Alita with Figure's help has to find a way to stop Den/Kaos from destroying Zalem (and Iron City below) while putting a stop to Nova's madness, all without sacrificing anyone else... except her.
-the third movie would overlap the Tuned/Figure arc with the Den/Zalem arc and end Alita's saga with the abbreviated ending, largely ignoring Last Order and Mars Chronicle. Alita in the Imaginos body now works as an assassin for Nova, targeting the Barjack army marching on Zalem led by Den/Kaos. She meets Figure on the way, he helps her get to Den but they're captured, Den/Kaos unlocks the Imaginos body's true power freeing her from Nova's control, Den/Kaos wants to knock Zalem out of the sky using recovered URM technology and sees the Iron City below as collateral damage, Alita with Figure's help has to find a way to stop Den/Kaos from destroying Zalem (and Iron City below) while putting a stop to Nova's madness, all without sacrificing anyone else... except her.
thanks for the info!
i think the whole alita ascending thing is just a plot hole that will always bother me. if the only way to ascend is to go as organs it doesn't make sense to me that alita, who knows this, would bother with rollerball. nova doesn't want her ascend, he wants her dead, unless it's now a game to him
Just watched the movie a couple hours ago, I thought it was enjoyable and really good, here's hoping for the possibility of a sequel.
Also, now I get why it had that kind of budget lol
Also, now I get why it had that kind of budget lol
Really enjoyed the movie. I knew nothing about the manga so I had no real expectations. I thought the 3D was really well done and popped. Shame about the mediocre box office receipts. I think this will be the movie that kills live action anime adaptations (unless it's like the Your Name type of movie that easily translates).
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If you do get into the manga, just know beforehand that the movie diverges from the source material in a number of ways, from the sequence of events to the motivations of certain characters
and especially regarding Nova.
And if you consider going beyond the initial run of Gunnm/Alita, into Last Order and Mars Chronicle, know those came years after the first series ended (the author didn't like his ending, came back after a hiatus, ignored it and kept going), and frankly things get a little too "out there" to be considered for direct adaptation. Like, there's clones and martial arts tournaments in outer space, weird stuff like that. The original series doesn't answer all questions a person might have, but it does have a beginning, a middle and an end.
It looks like it's made it to 400m worldwide so far on a budget of 170m, so it's looking like it's either broken even or is going to soon. I don't think it's likely that word of mouth will get it a sequel, but I also think it's premature to say there's no chance - James Cameron's in all likelihood about to hand Disney several billion dollars, it's not a stretch to think he could make it happen if he pushed for it.
I thought they went insane on the ad spend?
Either way it's not success train, it's more Scantum and less Point Break
Just got back from seeing it. It's a really fun movie to watch in terms of action, and the movie works best when it's just people fighting each other. As soon as anyone opens their mouth, everything goes downhill. The dialogue is absolutely terrible in spots (the comment I read somewhere of "what if Hollywood spent millions of dollars on a shitty anime dub" is dead on), the love interest subplot is awful, and the film is constantly cutting away from the one relationship that actually seems worth investing in: Alita and Ido. Characters just seem to change to fit whatever situation they're in. The movie literally ends before the possibility of a satisfying conclusion. It is utterly bizarre.
And yet there's a part of me that would totally watch a sequel if they ever make one. Which they won't, and arguably I'm not sure it deserves one, but I have unanswered questions.
Random things that don't make sense to me:
And yet there's a part of me that would totally watch a sequel if they ever make one. Which they won't, and arguably I'm not sure it deserves one, but I have unanswered questions.
Random things that don't make sense to me:
- Alita's characterization at the beginning of the movie is odd? I'm used to stories where the cyborg/android/whatever gets revived, has no idea how humanity works, and is essentially a cipher who has to relearn feelings. I don't really understand this twist on the formula, where apparently the cyborg has the default personality of a ten-year-old girl? Especially since she has a history as a Martian supersoldier, what would've been the purpose of making her that way?
- Similarly, why on earth does she fall for the first guy who looks at her funny?
- When Alita finds the berzerker body and brings it back to Ido, he refuses to put her in it because it's a highly advanced weapon. There's an interesting dilemma to be had here that completely goes by the wayside twenty minutes later, when Alita suddenly needs a new body and there's only one option available. No sense of him grappling with his surrogate daughter's needs versus the danger of unleashing such a weapon on the world, no question of whether the body or the "core" is where Alita's humanity lies, or if Alita becoming who she was "meant to be" means losing the Alita he thought he knew, not an iota of "does Ido even have the right to deny this from her," none of that; just "oh shit we have this extra body in storage here you go."
- The speech Alita gives in the hunter warrior bar comes seemingly out of nowhere. The only hint you get that it's pulled from her previous life is the shot at the very end where she repeats the line about not standing by in the presence of evil from her memories. That's not enough. It's a bizarre tonal shift and the movie doesn't really acknowledge how weird it is to have "I have a favourite food!" girl suddenly say this monologue.
- Chiren's change of heart doesn't make sense given that she never seems to think of Alita as her daughter until the very end. Like, I could see that she might make the journey, but the movie does no work to make it feel right for her. They barely get any screen time together; same with her and Ido, the only other character who could make Chiren sympathize with Alita in that way.
- Motorball doesn't actually have a remotely logical set of rules, does it?
- Speaking of which, do people in this society care about cyborgs dying or do they not? I feel like the movie goes back and forth on this one. Cyborgs seem to be mostly treated like people, but then Motorball is basically a super-popular death sport. Similarly, does Alita's ascension to first champion (final champion? sorry I forget) mean she's killed a whole lot of cyborgs? And is that supposed to be inspirational or grim?
- After all the lead-up to boyfriend's death as a human, we get maybe five minutes of him running up a space elevator and then his demise. Again, no grappling with becoming the thing he used to strip for spare parts, or dealing with the loss of his human self and what his new identity is (though maybe people are used enough to being around cyborgs that they shrug this part off), or really anything besides "I'm running away and also I guess I'm going to die here, later."
- It's sort of weird how Ido projects his daughter onto Alita and everyone, including Alita, just goes with it. The only people who seem at all concerned are the nurse (in that one scene at the very beginning, where she watches Ido and Alita walk off and is like "what just happened here") and Chiren.
- Also, what's the deal with that nurse anyways? She's kind of just in the background for everything. Seems like kind of a waste of a character.
Yeah, I guess the decision to make Alita a teenage girl is probably done in service of building a familial bond with Ido, but it makes little sense in the context of her being a much older cyborg soldier for Mars kind of leads to some dissonance. Between this movie and Wonder Woman I'm now completely over "strong but naive/inexperienced girl gets led by the hand by experienced male love interest" in movies. Thank god Captain Marvel didn't go that route.
This movie was incredibly unfocused and overstuffed. Both the Hunter-Warrior plotline and the Motorball plotline are kind of jumbled together. I realize that Zapan is an important character in the manga but he's largely superfluous here and the resolution of his plot in this movie is completely anticlimactic. Hugo sucks and, as you said, doesn't actually offer any interesting reflection into what it's like being turned into a cyborg. I feel like this movie would be better if it completely cut out Motorball and saved it for a hypothetical sequel (as it does). Either have Vector sic the Hunter-Warriors on Alita, or have her face off with them as she storms the Factory after Hugo dies.
Oh god, that reminds me:
lol berzerker body reforms to fit Alita's memories of herself, and the first thing the movie shows us is her boobs getting bigger wtf
I know this wouldn't have lined up with the anime/manga, but honestly I would've loved to see the version of this movie where Alita and Ido DO get to become a hunter-warrior team. Most of the thematic elements I enjoyed, including the one thing I liked about Hugo's inclusion, are tied up in the hunter-warrior stuff.
I liked Zapan making a fool out of Alita's rash impulse to become a hunter-warrior on her own. It felt like a real reckoning and a weighty consequence for a typically adolescent action.
Yep agreed. This is kinda weird as well in light of Cameron's criticism of Wonder Woman. I kind of don't understand his fascination with Alita.
I like this movie but it has a lot issues.
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After Wonder Woman and ice cream (which had the good grace to actually have a funny joke when Diana tells the vendor that he personally should be proud for his peoples' accomplishment) I cringed so hard at the chocolate scene. Apparently the way to a woman's heart is to be the first person to introduce them to the concept of dessert.
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Everything in the city, and possibly the planet for all we know, is still relatively new to her early on.
She gets way more cavalier about stuff as time as events progress.
It's kinda reflected in the way the city is presented too, in a way - early on we get more daylight scenes and Alita in lighter clothes, but as events progress we get more and more nightime and dirty dark alley scenes which are more common to the manga as she also begins to resemble her manga self more in darker outfit as the story progresses.
Her discovery of the berzerker body and her decision to register as a hunter-warrior when Ido refuses to install can arguably be scene as the turning point in this tendency, as she takes matters into her own hands despite Ido's concerns and a suboptimal body for the task.
I'm yet to read Mars Chronicles, but based on the covers she appears to have been a child soldier, and the movie certainly shows off heavily ingrained training, which didn't necessarily shut down any lingering young impulses she may have had despite not having had much of an opportunity to enjoy them - she gets something of a 2nd shot at that early on until her training and the impulses it emphasized start kicking in.
Arguably the street Motorball scene can be a decent glimpse into that - it's all fun and games until something or someone is perceived as a threat.
She gets way more cavalier about stuff as time as events progress.
It's kinda reflected in the way the city is presented too, in a way - early on we get more daylight scenes and Alita in lighter clothes, but as events progress we get more and more nightime and dirty dark alley scenes which are more common to the manga as she also begins to resemble her manga self more in darker outfit as the story progresses.
Her discovery of the berzerker body and her decision to register as a hunter-warrior when Ido refuses to install can arguably be scene as the turning point in this tendency, as she takes matters into her own hands despite Ido's concerns and a suboptimal body for the task.
I'm yet to read Mars Chronicles, but based on the covers she appears to have been a child soldier, and the movie certainly shows off heavily ingrained training, which didn't necessarily shut down any lingering young impulses she may have had despite not having had much of an opportunity to enjoy them - she gets something of a 2nd shot at that early on until her training and the impulses it emphasized start kicking in.
Arguably the street Motorball scene can be a decent glimpse into that - it's all fun and games until something or someone is perceived as a threat.
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I chalk that one down to adaptation - Hugo didn't even show up in the manga until Makaku (the base for Grewishka) was already dealt with), which only happened by the 2nd volume.
She did set out to hunt Grewishka on her own when I do made it clear he wouldn't help either as a hunter-warrior team or by I stalling the body, so she'd probably do the same again with another less decorative body (I don't think he'd keep her head and core in a stationary support system at home i stead of a body just for the sake of keeping her safe from then on) and a bit more of experience. She wouldn't be stopped, might as well use what's on hand to mitigate future risk and possibly get the job done properly.
Outside overt aggressors like in the alley fight, most people she's come across have been supportive for the most part - I thought her speech corny too then, but it does lead in to her facing the more pragmatic approaches taken in the city and that professional side of things.
Chiron was never a core part of the story, being an anime original - she does help to close the gaps between the likes of Ido and Vector (important in their own ways, but don't even meet in the manga IIRC), reinforcing the reason why I do keeps a female cyborg body and girl's clothes at home, and not having to explain how Alita would figure out how to interface her body with Hugo's head by the end. Not the strongest aspect of the adaptations, but serves a function.
Some people expect fight in their hockey matches and crashes in their car races - the stated rules and the audience appeal do go in separate directions at times. That being said, competition for scarce resources is an expected aspect of life in the city in that setting, and racing for a ball while wrecking everyone in your way for it just seems to epitomize that. In the last major MB scene in the manga, when only two characters remain one of them just outright throws away the ball and declares that a duel.
Bread and circuses factor, I think, with Motorball being the overtly violent circus (loss of limb is already pretty common in the setting, more so when criminals are augmented too, making it simpler for them to maim victims) - as for the bread, I found it curious that the chocolate had the same symbol on it as the factory door where hunter-warrior processes took place, so I guess that's the fancy bread one pays for.
In the manga IIRC he was in shock for it briefly before heading up right away, since up was where is focus was all along anyway, and in the movie he was now being pursued to boot. In the manga he did get his hand replaced with his brother's (shame they didn't keep the scar I this version), so that could have mitigated the impact in the original.
The daughter aspect is new here, but Ido is established as a guy who's generally a benevolent force in a harsh world, taking fruit as payment for treatments, repairing hunter-warriors for free to help keep the streets safe outside his own efforts in the profession... being protective of someone in a fragile situation is probably not a new thing, and the daughter body issues might be seen as an odd extension of that considering the body and name used... I figure it's seen as a "doing more good than harm" kind of thing unless things get really weird (and once her abilities are established, who'd be in greater danger should his deeds go full disturbing?).
The guy she replaces compared to the manga counterpart doesn't do or say much either. Their work in likely too complex to be a 1-man job, probably more so than a dentist's, and I've been to a few that worked with assistants that didn't say much. I did find it neat that she was one of a few people with a Kinuba shirt even after Kinuba got killed by Vector, but I already wrote here about the way that character was used a lot better in the movie than the manga.
Just saw this. I wasn't going to, but a few reviews of Captain Marvel kept saying watch this instead.
I had a very good time, the movie looked fantastic. Alita is charismatic (but looks so weird when she cries) and badass (as I exclaimed a few times throughout the movie), I'd give it 8/10 for the action scenes and visuals alone. Dunno why they put young Chris Kline in the movie though....and the 3rd act
Seriously, action scenes are so good. I'd forgotten what it feels like to be excited during one and actually fear for the hero's life. Wish they found some other way to develop her character without needing Young Chris Kline though... or maybe a different actor in his place. EDIT: Oh yeah,
I had a very good time, the movie looked fantastic. Alita is charismatic (but looks so weird when she cries) and badass (as I exclaimed a few times throughout the movie), I'd give it 8/10 for the action scenes and visuals alone. Dunno why they put young Chris Kline in the movie though....and the 3rd act
the movie kept meandering, trying its best not get to Nova and save it for another movie - an example of which is keeping Young Chris Kline alive, only to kill him in the end, lol
Seriously, action scenes are so good. I'd forgotten what it feels like to be excited during one and actually fear for the hero's life. Wish they found some other way to develop her character without needing Young Chris Kline though... or maybe a different actor in his place. EDIT: Oh yeah,
by the time he got a shirtless scene, I thought - fuck him, is he another 'hot young actor' they're trying to push?
Watched it with my asian gf while i was in thailand. Great stuff, very entertaining. Loved it because i read the manga long ago.
Saw this last week, and was pleasantly surprised. I watched the original anime back when I was in middle school, so Alita holds a special place in my heart, but I didn't venture into the manga.
I was shocked at the ending
The motorball bits were a nice addition. I usually gripe when it comes to films lately (especially adaptions like Ghost in the Shell and Edge of Tomorrow), but given the time constraints, what they covered, and how they pulled it off, I'm actually impressed.
I was shocked at the ending
that they dared keep the boy getting his head cut off, saved by Alita, and eventually shredded while running along the line to Nova like in the source material... it was a gutsy move and I didn't think they'd have the nerve to do it until I saw the line and shredder in the war flashback.
The motorball bits were a nice addition. I usually gripe when it comes to films lately (especially adaptions like Ghost in the Shell and Edge of Tomorrow), but given the time constraints, what they covered, and how they pulled it off, I'm actually impressed.
She needed a man to motivate her, he needs to be shirtless for this to happen
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This film was a good time with an awesome cyberpunk setting & worthy set-pieces, but shame about the ending.
95% of the time I agree with the critics consensus, but I think they slightly missed their mark with this film, it should have scored 64-72 on rotten tomatoes and a 60-66 on metacritic.
It is a fantastic theatre experience with some pacing issues.
overall should have definitely performed better. What a shame.
It is a fantastic theatre experience with some pacing issues.
overall should have definitely performed better. What a shame.
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It's an arbitrary milestone, but Alita is definitely crossing $400M worldwide at the box office after this weekend. It can't have much left in the tank after that, but at least it's going to come within spitting distance of Pacific Rim.
Watched this today.
The action was obviously the highlight, very enjoyable, but the rest of it... kind of sucked? Eh, just felt like there was just too much going on, everyone other than Alita felt rather paper thin. Also gotta agree with all the hate for the whole Hugo romance, it was even worse than I thought it'd be.
Also sadly, I never truly did get over Alita's eyes. So damn unnerving.
The action was obviously the highlight, very enjoyable, but the rest of it... kind of sucked? Eh, just felt like there was just too much going on, everyone other than Alita felt rather paper thin. Also gotta agree with all the hate for the whole Hugo romance, it was even worse than I thought it'd be.
Also sadly, I never truly did get over Alita's eyes. So damn unnerving.
The movie teased Nova way more than I expected, indicating they really want to do a sequel, and Vector got ascended compared to the manga. They could've cut him out, but the others are still kind of needed in my opinion. Even in the manga none of them is ever really the central antagonist -- the whole conflict of the story is really just Alita herself going through life. Again, some of those plot threads will make more sense IF they do a sequel.
Honestly, I kinda think Motorball is done as far as the movies are concerned. Them really wanting to get it into this one movie kinda screws with the timing. What would have been the Motorball arc was pretty much glossed over in the timeskip at the end of this movie.
Personally, I'd want a second movie to do Zapan and then go straight to the Barjack arc for a huge change of pace. No idea if there would even be a 3rd movie.
Personally, I'd want a second movie to do Zapan and then go straight to the Barjack arc for a huge change of pace. No idea if there would even be a 3rd movie.
Feels kinda weird agreeing with this, but it was definitely the more engaging experience. Captain was kinda boring.
......I tend to be sensitive to this sort of thing, but this wasn't AT ALL what I got from that scene. The orange and chocolate stuff seemed meant to show that Alita is very childlike and hasn't enjoyed a lot of experiences that are normal on earth, like eating something sugary. It wasn't like she associated chocolate with the guy, since she also asked her father figure if he had any chocolate. She just liked the taste. Tons of people do -- it doesn't have to be something sinister.
i think this is the first time where im actually agreeing with the whole critics having a "marvel bias"
Alita was just as good if not a better popcorn flick than captain marvel, it should have recevied similar ratings IMO