If there's a major issue I have with ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL it's that I wanted more, which isn't necessarily a bad problem to have. It wasn't that there wasn't a lot here (and there's A LOT), but I easily would've stayed in my seat to watch another half hour to see the story taken one step further, as this is absolutely an origin tale that builds to something much bigger and with much left to be explored. While that's actually a really cool aspect to the film, it does leave the cinematic stomach a bit hungry for more with this meal. Still, the film stands tall on its own and I'm hopeful it resonates enough with fans and non-fans alike that will see more follow-ups to come. There's plenty of source material left to explore and with the world set-up so beautifully, it'd be great to revisit this immersive, virtual environment again, but that will ultimately rest on whether or not folks enjoy it as much as I did and give it the box office boost to make it so. If this is our only stop, however, it's something I'll happily revisit for the fun, wild ride that it is.
With plenty of heart and some sensational spectacle, Alita: Battle Angel is an absorbing and delightful cinema experience that really has to be experienced in IMAX where possible. The 3D element crucially sweeps you up into this world (at one point I got sweaty palms just by watching a CGI character stand on the edge of a CGI building). IMAX presents nearly half of the film with up to 26% more picture onscreen. Going beyond the standard frame of a cinema screen makes the experience far richer, and mixed with the upgraded sound and re-mastered image gives Alita: Battle Angel a truly unique edge. If you can take the leap, then watching it in IMAX will not disappoint one bit. As for the film itself, it easily becomes one of the outstanding highlights of the year so far, and delivers a startling insight into where the future of cinema could be heading.
All things considered, the movie is an immersive escape to another world. Attempts at emotion and human connections are supplemented by amazing visual and practical effects, along with well-crafted action sequences. It's not going to be the next Avatar despite being an equally massive idea, but Alita builds its own world for a second adventure which could get audiences more invested.
Alita: Battle Angel is a film with Imax spectacle and big effects. But for all its scale, it might end up being put on for 13-year-olds as a sleepover entertainment. It doesn’t have the grownup, challenging, complicated ideas of Ghost in the Shell. A vanilla dystopian romance.
When the action stops, though, it’s obvious that nothing much adds up, and nothing much is resolved. What, for instance, is life like in Zalem? Who is its Oz-like ruler, Nova (Edward Norton, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo)? What does the planet Mars have to do with it all? And, crucially, who was Alita in her previous incarnation?
Rodriguez must have planned to answer these questions in a sequel, but don’t hold your breath. His film is probably too rushed, unfocused and tonally erratic to attract an audience, in which case the wait for an “Alita: Battle Angel” sequel will be even longer than the wait for an “Avatar” one.
A watered down version of the manga, as expected. Pack it up bois
I'll start a spoiler thread tomorrow. I'm dead tired but, I thought I'd dump a bit before going to bed.
My daughter and I saw the screening tonight and loved it. I thought it was both a good movie and a good adaption of Alita. Was everything the same as in the comic? No. (Other than the initial 2 minutes, which were almost frame for frame the same!) A lot of the departure came with the necessity of compression. But even given that, I thought they did a really good job at blending several of the plotlines together in a way that kept the important bits of them and were true to the characters. They even managed to rescue Chiren from the Anime and turn her into a sympathetic fulfilling part of the story. (And I loathed her in the Anime.)
The characters show great depth, emotion, and growth over the film. And that part is very true to the Manga. And, to me, that is one of the most important things.
Where it diverges the most is in the cinematic necessity to give more backstory than Kishiro dribbles out to us over the years. It's kind of different and the denouement sets it up for a sequel that would diverge much more dramatically.
No one else was there in costume. The people I talked to who hadn't ready the manga liked it. But there was no thunderous applause. So I expect it will be popular, but perhaps not a Titanic or Avatar.
To be honest, I didn't notice the eyes at all. I actually preferred the original eyes before they reduced them. They really made her look different. The way they ended up she didn't look all that different from other people.
The only time I really noticed the eyes was in the flashbacks with Gelda. I guess since we were habituated to Alita we didn't notice them on her. But seeing them on an occasional character made them more noticeable.
Here's one picture while we were waiting for entry. As I said, they aren't great costumes. Some of the hat rubbed off on my face, and my daughter is doing her best "octopus lips". I meant to do a kind of mask thing to cover my beard, but forgot at the last minute. But since we were the only ones in costume there, we were the best ones in costume!
jjaquinta wrote: Fri Feb 01, 2019 5:03 pm
To be honest, I didn't notice the eyes at all. I actually preferred the original eyes before they reduced them. They really made her look different. The way they ended up she didn't look all that different from other people.
The only time I really noticed the eyes was in the flashbacks with Gelda. I guess since we were habituated to Alita we didn't notice them on her. But seeing them on an occasional character made them more noticeable.
Here's one picture while we were waiting for entry. As I said, they aren't great costumes. Some of the hat rubbed off on my face, and my daughter is doing her best "octopus lips". I meant to do a kind of mask thing to cover my beard, but forgot at the last minute. But since we were the only ones in costume there, we were the best ones in costume!
They're still cute, thanks for sharing! And good to hear about the eyes, hope my impression will be similar.
Another non-spoiler I keep forgetting to mention. Although the CGI was freaking amazing, the 3D part of it is kind of "meh". If you want spectacle, go for IMAX if you can. Apparently, because of the aspect ration, there is, literally, more on the screen. Probably nothing significant, but it will wrap around more. But if you can't see it in IMAX (or don't want to pay the price), my advice is don't spend the extra on 3D. Just see it in normal digital.
Took my dad to see the movie in 3D. He loved it, I loved it, but having said that.. First off, I really feel like the movie could have been at least 30 minutes longer. Parts of the story felt a little rushed in places and left me thinking 'if they'd just taken a few more minutes on this scene' more than once.
Second, I found myself kind of irked a little bit, how they'd tease characters that show up later in books by giving them brief cameos. I mean come on, you show us Jashugan and Ajakutty all of twice, and then that's it?! *laughs* Admittedly, that was just a fleeting irritation. I've always felt that Jashugan was one of the more significant characters in Gunnm. Though... seeing a version of Tiegel would have been hilariously awesome to me.
Third, I also felt like Grewishka could've gotten more screen time. He wasn't nearly as sympathetic as Makaku (who is one of my favorite villains, creepy bastard that he is) but I felt like we could've been shown just why he's so loyal to the big bad... and that he could've been made creepier/scarier. I mean, he's played by Jackie Earl Haley of all people, who made Freddy Krueger creepy again! I wasn't expecting anything as bad as eating people's brains, but still!
Fourth, the crashed ship. That part felt like an awkward fit to me. I get how and why it was placed in the setting of the movie, but I think there should have been an explanation as to just what had kept would-be salvagers from doing more than pulling pieces of scrap off the thing. Some kind of lethal security system or something, but admittedly that ties into my first point about the story feeling rushed in places.
Things I liked though? Zapan. They did an amazing job with him, and I'm not just talking about the Blue Oyster Cult scar on his forehead (though that was a nice homage touch). Ed Skrein did him justice, and I'll admit that I was expecting him to drop the ball there on playing him. Also McTeague. A better name than Murdock given the look they went for with him, even though my dad honestly thought for a moment that he was Burt Reynolds. Took me a while to unsee that.
And finally, the girl of the hour here. I did not expect Rosa Salazar to sound exactly like the Alita in my head. She in fact, blew me away completely with how well she did. I'll admit, I tend to look at Alita with rose-colored glasses. I stumbled across Gunnm in my mid-teens, and it seemed like I literally fumbled my way through my teenage years along side that stubborn octopus-lips-looking dummy, to the point where it's like she's another sister of mine. Rosa made her brave, silly, scary, goofy, wonderful, intense, and beautiful in all the right ways in all the right places. I'm going to be trying to watch the movie again in theaters at some point, and I've never said that about a movie before now.
So the weekends over...unless China goes Nuclear we are in maaaybe a sequel land...
As I watched it, I remember thinking I don't hate the cg face, but now that we are going to be squeaking into a sequel if at all...me, been coming here since 2000ish...Viz comics monthly in 93-94ish...that face was a fucking idiot disaster.
I hope fucking Avatar 2 through who the fuck cares bombs. The Nova choices were horrible. The Mars backstory is crap.
Hi!
I have seen it and it was good but I'm a little disappointed about some things :
- Americans Why they have to change the names every times ! (I'm French) Gally -> Alita, Yugo -> Hugo, Makaku -> Grewishka, Kuzutetsu -> Iron City...
- It's too clean, too Hollywood
- They tried to put everything in it, it goes too fast
- Yugo (or Hugo)... wtf? He looks like a One Direction boy
- Kuzutetsu should be full of cyborgs and here, almost nothing. During motorball, in the bleachers, I see no cyborg at all.
- The cyborg who take the head in factory (I don't know the english name), he should be part human (his cheecks and lips)
So it's was good looking but...
Hey, lets talk about Box Office and other analytics fellas:
‘Alita’ Battles Her Way To $41M+ 5-Day, But Remains Far From Heaven At The B.O.
When a studio or a filmmaker builds a movie for north of $170M, the expectation is to soar to the greatest heights at the box office, and a passion project in the hands of James Cameron as producer — what studio wouldn’t double down on that, especially in an era starving for fresh franchises?
His Alita: Battle Angel, directed by Robert Rodriguez, is easily winning the Presidents Day box office, with a $27.8M 3-day and $33M 4-day and a revised 5-day of $41.7M. Overseas stands at $94.3M from 86 markets which includes last week’s $36M plus another $56.1M made this weekend in all territories (including previews) except for Japan and China. This will put Alita‘s WW at $136M by tomorrow. But the pic, despite beating its domestic tracking and an $11.6M Saturday, +55% over Friday, is still a long way from any kind of profitability. Imax contributed $6.5M at 404 screens stateside or 16% of the pic’s overall gross. Some rival B.O. analysts believe that her domestic result at this 5-day level has a shot of hitting $80M, maybe $100M.
Fox contends breakeven is between $350M-$400M, while other finance film sources with knowledge of the budget say it’s significantly more. A $50M domestic start over 5 days would be considered at the very least respectable for a movie this size. We understand Alita‘s price tag was originally $200M, and shaved down to $170M between New Zealand and Texas tax credits.
Who has turned out to Alita to date? In updated PostTrak, M25+ at 34% are the biggest quad, giving the pic its best grade at 84%. This is followed by men under 25 at 26% (with a 71% grade), then females under 25 (21% with a 73% grade), and females over 25 (19% turnout, 78% positive score). Overall, a healthy 59% recommend. Those between 13-17 made up 8% of Alita’s ticket buyers, giving it an 81% score. Among kids under 12, Boys 10-12 were the biggest demo at 37% followed by Girls 10-12 (23%). But girls loved the movie more at 100% versus boy’s 77%.
The kids playing motorball COMPLETELY shows the mistake of forcing motorball too soon and making the city waaaay too safe. Yugo just dies for no reason. He just wants to go to Zalem for the hell of it. I'm convinced he (James Cameron) read the first 4 books and was like; I got it I'm making a movie. No way is it getting a sequel.
Martin wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 1:16 am
The kids playing motorball COMPLETELY shows the mistake of forcing motorball too soon and making the city waaaay too safe
Film showed more realistic version of this world. In manga all it's darkness and despair shown hypertrophied and almost caricature. It looks interesting and attractive in terms of artistic experience, but it would not work in film.
It completely cuts the head off of Den and Koyomi's joining Barjack. THIEVES OF OUR SKY!!!!
Yugo's lust for Tiphares; he is a victim of Tiphare's allure driven by the squalor of the Scrapyard.
The scrapyard is fucking miserable is the point (and plenty realistic). We get the garbage society with no police and hunter warriors and people look pretty good and healthy.
I always thought the world is more like Madmax than ....whatever the hell the stupid movie is.
Martin wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:57 am
It completely cuts the head off of Den and Koyomi's joining Barjack. THIEVES OF OUR SKY!!!!
Yugo's lust for Tiphares; he is a victim of Tiphare's allure driven by the squalor of the Scrapyard.
The scrapyard is fucking miserable is the point (and plenty realistic). We get the garbage society with no police and hunter warriors and people look pretty good and healthy.
I always thought the world is more like Madmax than ....whatever the hell the stupid movie is.
Not the fact. Koyomi is in film, despite she is not a "daughter" of Kanzas Bar owner. Beside that, she is not key character in this ark. This ark depends on how Nova will be introduced in further films.
Nope. Hugo lust for Zalem because of loss of his brother, whose dream was to see Zalem and because of his sister-in-law, who betrayed his brother because of she wanted to stay in the scrapyard. That's the only thing in the movie which is really bad - stupid motivation of Hugo.
It's not realistic world in scrapyard imaging from manga. There is only 3 rules in - no firearms, no kills, no flights. with all that concentration of bandits, psychos, drug addicts, mutants that was shown in manga, there is no chance for the scrapyard to have bars, clinics, stores or any other peaceful establishments and farm workers. Mad Max societies had some lead groups with much more wide set of rules and direct controlling\regulating. So, showing the scrapyard as little better and safer place to live makes that world seem much more viable
It's not stupid, just less like what we're all addicted to.
I'm surprised there isn't more toy presence and maybe a video game? An American video game...fuck it...it would have to be motorball only could be a good multiplayer game. I little luck and a good game could be what gets us a sequel.
I almost started writing a audio game based on Alita for the movie. Much like a text adventure game but done via voice. You are a hunter warrior, you review the bounty list, and wander the districts of the scrapyard looking for bounties to capture. You can use the rewards from captured bounties to upgrade your body and weapons. That was the basic gameplay. But, so far, all the development we've done has stayed within IP boundaries. I was reluctant to put the work in and risk an IP takedown.
I watched it three times already, and I'm going to see it again. I thought it was incredibly faithful to the manga, and where changes were made, I felt they were either appropriate and necessary for the medium or actually improved the story. Cameron and Rodriguez have a ton of content to pack into three movies, and it's understandable that some of that content got cut, or stitched together into a more integrated story. Wasn't a perfect movie but the heart was really there, it's clear everyone involved cared a lot about the source material.
Incidentally, I haven't been on a bb in years, is multiple-posting still a no no? jjaquinta, I'm intrigued -- I thought of making an audio game myself. If you release it for free it should be fair use, like fan fiction.
Fan fiction is not "fair use". Many authors tolerate it. But it is within their rights to demand you to take it down. I had a long talk with C.J.Cherryh after she asked me to take mine down about it. They own the IP. And you can restrict their future plans by writing additional works using their IP. So the more business minded don't allow it.
As far as Alita, it really depends on who owns the game rights to it, and if those game rights are just "video game" rights, or any rights. I tried, years ago, to find out who owned the novelization rights to Alita, because I wanted to novelize it. But I wasn't able to get an answer out of anyone. Audio games are more obscure, so I didn't even try this time around.
I have some rather expansive audio games on the market. (Written a book about how to develop them too!) If you have an Echo or Home you can probably search "TsaTsaTzu" and find them. 6 Swords is the biggest. It's basically D&D. (And uses an Open Source version of the rules.) If you have an Amazon Echo and want to try out the prototype I was going to use as the basis of the Scrapyard game, drop me a line and I'll add you to the beta.
Ah -- clever! Using Echo's built-in voice recognition and synthesizer. I was thinking along the lines of an interactive radio play, for PC, but that does seem like a more versatile approach. I haven't got an Echo, though, so while I'd be interested in looking at your code if you're willing to share it, I wouldn't be able to actually run it.
Why they have to change the names every times ! (I'm French) Gally -> Alita, Yugo -> Hugo, Makaku -> Grewishka, Kuzutetsu -> Iron City...
