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NEWS: James Cameron's Alita: Battle Angel Film Casts Eiza Gonzales


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Kon'Doriano



Joined: 17 Sep 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:04 am Reply with quote
Hmm, I wonder who she is going to play ^__^ This film already looks 7x better than the Ghost in the Shell movie.
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MajorZero



Joined: 29 Jul 2010
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:18 am Reply with quote
Kon'Doriano wrote:
Hmm, I wonder who she is going to play ^__^ This film already looks 7x better than the Ghost in the Shell movie.

Well, it was 11 years since Rodriguez made his last good film, so, I'm not entirely sure that it'll be good.
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maximilianjenus



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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:38 am Reply with quote
but, were those bad because of the director, or because the writing was horrible ?
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Kon'Doriano



Joined: 17 Sep 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 11:09 am Reply with quote
MajorZero wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
Hmm, I wonder who she is going to play ^__^ This film already looks 7x better than the Ghost in the Shell movie.

Well, it was 11 years since Rodriguez made his last good film, so, I'm not entirely sure that it'll be good.


Robert is an experienced veteran director who has both his successes and failures. He's especially hit-or-miss when it comes to sequels but when it comes to original movies, he can get the job done. And during the past 11 years, he made Planet Terror and Machete, two pretty good films. I understand the skepticism but the fact a seasoned director like him is hired instead of some inexperienced fodder like Rupert Sanders is pretty reassuring. Not to mention that Robert has a certain distinctive style that may fit with the atmosphere of Alita. Besides, Robert isn't the only factor that can make the film good/bad. It also depends on the script, the editors and the actors.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 11:18 am Reply with quote
Planet Terror and Machete were incredibly niche films that hardly anyone remembers.

But he did make Desparado and Once Upon A Time In Mexico so he's not too bad.
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MajorZero



Joined: 29 Jul 2010
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 11:39 am Reply with quote
Kon'Doriano wrote:
I understand the skepticism but the fact a seasoned director like him is hired instead of some inexperienced fodder like Rupert Sanders is pretty reassuring.

Indeed, you know that your property is in the right hands when it's directed by the auteur behind such masterpieces as The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Shorts, Spy Kids 4 and Machete Kills.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 12:45 pm Reply with quote
Kon'Doriano wrote:
MajorZero wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
Hmm, I wonder who she is going to play ^__^ This film already looks 7x better than the Ghost in the Shell movie.

Well, it was 11 years since Rodriguez made his last good film, so, I'm not entirely sure that it'll be good.


Robert is an experienced veteran director who has both his successes and failures. He's especially hit-or-miss when it comes to sequels but when it comes to original movies, he can get the job done. And during the past 11 years, he made Planet Terror and Machete, two pretty good films. I understand the skepticism but the fact a seasoned director like him is hired instead of some inexperienced fodder like Rupert Sanders is pretty reassuring. Not to mention that Robert has a certain distinctive style that may fit with the atmosphere of Alita. Besides, Robert isn't the only factor that can make the film good/bad. It also depends on the script, the editors and the actors.


The problem with Robert is he doesn't know how to use CGI properly (the CG in his last films look terrible),and he's not great a getting performances out of the his actors. It will really come down to how much of Cameron's script is left from rewrites,and how of a producing role will he have it on. The cast they got so far is good,so that's the least of my worries.
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Kon'Doriano



Joined: 17 Sep 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 2:21 pm Reply with quote
MajorZero wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
I understand the skepticism but the fact a seasoned director like him is hired instead of some inexperienced fodder like Rupert Sanders is pretty reassuring.

Indeed, you know that your property is in the right hands when it's directed by the auteur behind such masterpieces as The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Shorts, Spy Kids 4 and Machete Kills.


Wanna know what else he made? His Mexico trilogy (El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon A Time in Mexico), Sin City, and Spy Kids. Like I said before, he knows success and failure. At least his bad films are nowhere near as bad as Snow White and the Huntsman (which is Sanders' only known work).
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Kon'Doriano



Joined: 17 Sep 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 2:43 pm Reply with quote
Themaster20000 wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
MajorZero wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
Hmm, I wonder who she is going to play ^__^ This film already looks 7x better than the Ghost in the Shell movie.

Well, it was 11 years since Rodriguez made his last good film, so, I'm not entirely sure that it'll be good.


Robert is an experienced veteran director who has both his successes and failures. He's especially hit-or-miss when it comes to sequels but when it comes to original movies, he can get the job done. And during the past 11 years, he made Planet Terror and Machete, two pretty good films. I understand the skepticism but the fact a seasoned director like him is hired instead of some inexperienced fodder like Rupert Sanders is pretty reassuring. Not to mention that Robert has a certain distinctive style that may fit with the atmosphere of Alita. Besides, Robert isn't the only factor that can make the film good/bad. It also depends on the script, the editors and the actors.


The problem with Robert is he doesn't know how to use CGI properly (the CG in his last films look terrible),and he's not great a getting performances out of the his actors. It will really come down to how much of Cameron's script is left from rewrites,and how of a producing role will he have it on. The cast they got so far is good,so that's the least of my worries.


If Robert isn't capable of taking on such an ambitious project, then Cameron wouldn't have handed the helm over to him. Yeah he does have very major flaws but how do we know if he hasn't improved upon them? Through his collaboration with Cameron, you can at least expect that they'll learn a lot from each other (especially Robert learning more technical and visual techniques from Cameron). Robert is a capable director who has the potential to do this film justice and I believe this film is in good hands.
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MajorZero



Joined: 29 Jul 2010
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:08 pm Reply with quote
Kon'Doriano wrote:
At least his bad films are nowhere near as bad as Snow White and the Huntsman (which is Sanders' only known work).

That's a bold statement. His films for kids are nearly unwatchable. Both Machete Kills and A Dame to Kill For practically as bad, if not worse, as Sanders' only work. Most of his significant works (El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn) were made in the early or mid 90's. Last but not least, the vast majority of man's body of work are glorified B-Movies, the only works where he proved himself to be capable of directing something outside of his comfort zone with success were Sin City and, to a much lesser extent, Faculty. So yeah, I put more hope in a relative newcomer than in a washed up veteran who seeks to regain his creative dignity.
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nixice



Joined: 20 Oct 2003
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 3:26 pm Reply with quote
MajorZero wrote:
Indeed, you know that your property is in the right hands when it's directed by the auteur behind such masterpieces as The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Shorts, Spy Kids 4 and Machete Kills.


To be fair, Rodriguez is not an auteur director concerned with a singular library (the way somebody like say Tarantino is, who is so invested in his name brand as a cinematic statement that he has vowed to stop making films in a few years to protect his oeuvre, if you will.) Rodriguez just wants to put butts in seats and make people happy for what they paid for. He doesn't care about what you and I think about movies we didn't go see, because they made money and they reached the target audience.

Better we assess his viability by the films he has made in the genres and demographic reach that apply to Battle Angel. So things like the Mexico trilogy, Sin City, The Faculty, Dusk Till Dawn, to a degree Predators (he was a key producer on that project), the Matador and Dusk Till Dawn TV shows, things like that. I think there's plenty in those projects that would qualify (and potentially disqualify) him as Cameron's pick as director for Battle Angel.

Themaster20000 wrote:
The problem with Robert is he doesn't know how to use CGI properly (the CG in his last films look terrible),and he's not great a getting performances out of the his actors. It will really come down to how much of Cameron's script is left from rewrites,and how of a producing role will he have it on. The cast they got so far is good,so that's the least of my worries.


Are you talking the Spy Kids type films, or Machete and Dame to Kill For? In his kids movies, (actually, in all of his movies,) being frugal is part of how those films exist. They're made on the cheap and for fun, and while I agree that they grossed me out in trailers as embarrassingly bad, they were successful enough to make four theatrical films, so the target audience I guess wasn't bothered. The more recent films, I've seen a few and the FX didn't bother me, but even those are done on the cheap and fit into genres that allow for some silliness for the sake of being gonzo in style. Even big releases like Once Upon a Time in Mexico are filmed quickly and cheaply (OUaTiM was famously one of the first major-market films to use digital video instead of filmstock.)

So I'm not sure there's much in the past 10 years that really tells us for sure where Rodriguez is at with Battle Angel. He's been doing things other than AAA movies for a long while now. Plus, he always shoots fast and cheap, and a Battle Angel manga adaptation for James Cameron cannot possibly be either of those, so Rodriguez is a bit in uncharted waters here. If Rodriguez's Red Sonja film had gone through production, we would have had a better idea of what we could look forward to, but that didn't happen.

I would recommend looking at Predators, though, as an example of visual quality control under Rodriguez's oversight. His Troublemaker studios did some of the effects work and he was intimately involved and on set for Nimród Antal's movie.
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Kon'Doriano



Joined: 17 Sep 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 5:00 pm Reply with quote
MajorZero wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
At least his bad films are nowhere near as bad as Snow White and the Huntsman (which is Sanders' only known work).

That's a bold statement. His films for kids are nearly unwatchable. Both Machete Kills and A Dame to Kill For practically as bad, if not worse, as Sanders' only work. Most of his significant works (El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn) were made in the early or mid 90's. Last but not least, the vast majority of man's body of work are glorified B-Movies, the only works where he proved himself to be capable of directing something outside of his comfort zone with success were Sin City and, to a much lesser extent, Faculty. So yeah, I put more hope in a relative newcomer than in a washed up veteran who seeks to regain his creative dignity.


And Snow White and the Huntsman isn't unwatchable? The only good thing about it is the cinematography, and that credit goes to the cinematographer's skill, not the director's. Everything else about it, from the actor's performances to the piss poor script to the execution made the film a painful joke. It isn't even functional as a popcorn flick like Machete Kills. Here's an undeniable fact: Rodriguez has much more experience than Sanders. That right there shows he is more reliable and with Cameron's involvement as producer he'll do fine as the director. If he didn't have what it takes to helm the project then Cameron wouldn't have entrusted him with it in the first place. I firmly believe the movie is in better hands than GitS was.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5886
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 6:06 pm Reply with quote
Kon'Doriano wrote:
That right there shows he is more reliable and with Cameron's involvement as producer he'll do fine as the director. If he didn't have what it takes to helm the project then Cameron wouldn't have entrusted him with it in the first place.


Given how long this movie has been sitting around Cameron choosing Rodriguez was likely something done because Cameron couldn't find anyone else (for cheap) not because of Rodriguez's body of work.

nixice wrote:
He doesn't care about what you and I think about movies we didn't go see, because they made money


Sharkboy & Lava Girl hardly made any money, Grindhouse bombed, A Dame To Kill For bombed, Machete Kills somehow failed to make back it's 20 million dollar budget despite having 15 million in box office returns, From Dusk Til Dawn apparently didn't too good since it's sequels were straight to DVD releases.
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Kon'Doriano



Joined: 17 Sep 2016
Posts: 552
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 6:28 pm Reply with quote
BadNewsBlues wrote:
Kon'Doriano wrote:
That right there shows he is more reliable and with Cameron's involvement as producer he'll do fine as the director. If he didn't have what it takes to helm the project then Cameron wouldn't have entrusted him with it in the first place.


Given how long this movie has been sitting around Cameron choosing Rodriguez was likely something done because Cameron couldn't find anyone else (for cheap) not because of Rodriguez's body of work.

nixice wrote:
He doesn't care about what you and I think about movies we didn't go see, because they made money


Sharkboy & Lava Girl hardly made any money, Grindhouse bombed, A Dame To Kill For bombed, Machete Kills somehow failed to make back it's 20 million dollar budget despite having 15 million in box office returns, From Dusk Til Dawn apparently didn't too good since it's sequels were straight to DVD releases.


Your response to me is completely false http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-cameron-robert-rodriguez-teaming-832157
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2024
PostPosted: Fri Oct 07, 2016 8:53 pm Reply with quote
I haven't seen all of Robert Rodriguez's films, but I enjoyed Planet Terror, Dusk Til Dawn, Sin City, the first Machete, and even the first two Spy Kids films. I'm also a fan of his El Rey cable network. I'm pretty optimistic about this film, especially since James Cameron is still on board (not that all of his films are great either). It doesn't even feel like a cash grab since it's based on a kind of niche manga. It's still way too early to tell how this will turn out.

I'm also looking forward to Ghost in the Shell, though I am more cautious since I have less faith in the director of Huntsman. To me, the Hollywood anime adaptation that looks the most promising is Adam Wingard's Death Note.
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