Forum - View topicREVIEW: Alita: Battle Angel
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11355 |
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Her eyeballs are actually the same size as they were in the first trailer. The main change was making her irises larger to reduce the crazed bug-eyed effect of too much white around them. (Watch the video at the link, which shows it much more clearly - I think he said they were 30% larger) 
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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For starters I am in the same disbelief crowd for those who never thought this would even be released. Whether it would be good or bad was secondary to the fact I thought this would never see the light of day with Cameron so intent on making far too many Avatar movies. Sort of like we've heard about an Akira and Bebop live action movie for a long time now. The original OVA and the manga were some of my first forays knowingly into the anime/manga world. So this title has always had a special place in my heart. Even Last Order.
While I personally feel Speed Racer and GITS were "good" adaptations, they were certainly not great. I don't expect adaptations to be 100% authentic. Hence the word adaptation. Seriously, look up the definition. What I do expect is for such movies to carry the same "feel" of the source material. The Transformer's movies are so far removed from the source material they might as well be something entirely different. They remain financially a success however. In terms of movies closer to the source material GITS and Speed Racer did the best job up til now. Again, they were fine but not something to write home about. This sounds like it's the first "great" adaptation that truly does the title justice. Beyond my own affinity and love for Alita in particular this gives me up that perhaps other future movies can be done just as well. Such as Akira. Now that they have done one right hopefully it is not a flop so it doesn't scare away others from doing future adaptations as well as this one. |
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Furuzaki
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Not sure if overprotective, or simply angry about these bad adaptions... (Ghost in the Shell movie was soooo bad  ) But if Americans were "hands off", legal anime would be unknown to the international market.
Poison or not, it's necessary. Funimation, Sentai, Crunchy, Netflix, Hollywood, it's all good for the market. If you recall, 10years ago, legal anime almost did disappear. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 4824 |
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TexZero
Posts: 583 |
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I have to respectfully disagree with this notion that what people want is the same to what they watch. People go out and watch the Superhero stuff to be in the watercooler talk circles. They don't neccessarily want this type of movie however. Also, the rise of heroic films is not a huge surpise given the state of the world. When the world at large starts to distrust their leaders people look to external sources to find their north star so to speak. Hero movies super or otherwise are the easiest form of conveying that message but aren't the only ones capable of doing so and while Alita may seem like a gritty dark cyberpunk it tackles the intricies of being human and finding a purpose/sense of morality every bit as good as the Hero films do. |
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sokpupet
Posts: 133 |
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I love how her posture in the poster could be read as, "I don't give a f███ what you think of my eyes."
So happy that this turned out well and now all I need to worry about is how well it'll do at the box office. At least a moderate success just so it isn't written off and abandoned. Last edited by sokpupet on Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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luffypirate
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Looking forward to seeing it.
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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I'll probably see Battle Angel Alita when it hits the second run place just so I can see it in 2D on a medium-sized screen.
All the showtimes I'm seeing for Ottawa next week have it only in either 3D and/or on IMAX, and I'm sure IMAX 3D is the superior way to watch it but I have severely unbalanced vision due to an eye injury and every time I've given 3D a chance, I get a migraine as my reward. As for 2D IMAX, those screens give me vertigo. UPDATE (February 10th): It seem like there will be a handful of normal-sized 2D screens in Ottawa playing Battle Angel Alita after all for those of us fuddy-duddys who can't handle 3D on a way-too-big screen. I suppose the sort of people who buy tickets weeks in advance are also the same people who like the screens to be as big and high tech as possible (which is fine if you don't have the same kind of physiological problems I do preventing me from enjoying movies on anything other than old-fashioned 2D screens). I'm still not going to see it on its extended opening "weekend" but I might upgrade my Battle Angel Alita viewing plans from "wait until it hits second run" to "see it on cheap Tuesday in a few weeks". Last edited by Tenchi on Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Nordhmmer
Posts: 1028 |
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Just watched the movie-plenty of movie "sins",but it'll be a hit.
Did not care for the daughter bit-Long live the memory of a cat named Alita. Jennifer Connelly I feel is wasted &playing a unnecessary character. Motorball sadly reminded me too much of pod racing- I blame the announcer(and Lucas). Yugo,too much Yugo. Edit: Gally's eyes worked...The odd thing for me- her body being too small/slim for her head. |
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Figure Four
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Just watched the flick this afternoon and, after being a fan of the manga and anime for nearly twenty five years, I can't say I was too impressed for a variety of reasons.
For me the film wedged together too many aspects badly (no actual need for Desty Nova to be included at this stage, for example, and the motorball seemed needless, particularly knowing how this story arc comes in to play in the manga, plus why give Alta's back story away so early?! Ugh!) and strangely omitted some excellent character design featured in the original manga (Clive Lee, Zapan, Makaku, Jashugan, the Deckmen, etc and why omit Doc Ido's forehead mark?!) in favour of run of the mill cyborgs and human inhabitants whose fashion sense could have seen them at home in the 21st century. The city too, failed to communicate the harshness of the environment and instead came across like quite a pleasant place to live! I'm sure some will like it, but I felt the grit and futility captured in the first few books was ignored to a greater extent. I understand why with the huge amount of cash pumped into it and a need to get box office returns, but I feel the aspects that caused me to love the manga and OVA so dearly were largely pushed to the side in favour of a more palatable piece of film making. Ah well! |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2421 Location: Germany |
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The film is alright, about a strong a 6/10. Almost the best US life action adaptation of manga/anime to date but i was never bored with deliberately trashy Death Note, so it still somehow takes that "crown". Cameron ultimately sunk too much money into this project over 2 decades to do an actual adaption at this point. This film could first of all loose about 30 minutes and don´t get me started on the changes they made to Alita´s adoptive father Ido to make him more relatable. Basically everyone got reduced to a cliche. Gone is the R-rated content, the moral ambiguity, the slow roll out of the lore and so on. Everything is spoon fed and over explained to guarantee that every single market and demographic imaginable can follow along. The endless expositions is rather clunk too. The same goes to the occasionally bewildering sequel/prequel hooks. The strong visuals and some of the performances ultimately save the film, as a lot of passion went into this production. The often complex choreography and the mo-capped facial expression stand out too. The films further managed to nail the manga´s ultra detailed and out there look. Alita: Battle Angel is obviously twice the film Ghost in the Shell 2017 (the horror) or Fist of the North Star 1995 (shudder) are, so the standards for US adaptation are clearly moving forward but don´t expect anything more than a sub-PG-13 B-movie with a 200 mil budget.
The classic manga frankly deserves better and i say that as a fan of the adult targeted Rodriguez films. I will continue to wait for at least a 26 episode anime that adapts the original 9 volumes run. This film is a solid stop gat to that day but i don´t think that anyone will cry out for the full trilogy the producer keeps bringing up. I would watch a less cookie cutter and edgier sequel though. Especially if the bloated budget get´s slashed in half to reduce the bloated scope. |
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rtil
 Posts: 93 |
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there has literally never been a good western adaptation of an anime or manga. the closest thing is maybe edge of tomorrow, which is pushing it, but technically is one. and i've heard "this one is actually good!" enough times to know i won't be fooled again (also the average review is about a 6/10 so idk who "everyone" is). i'm not going to throw money at a hack director and producer with his head so far up his ass he hasn't seen the sun since the last century. especially when it's pretty clear they've butchered the property based on the plot beats from the trailer. not to mention the cgi looks horrendous. look, not even japan can do these live action adaptations right. nobody can. they always pick stuff that's far beyond the capabilities of the mundane world to the point where it should just be animated. that's always their mistake. and they will keep making it for eternity. |
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rtil
Posts: 93 |
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i meant hands off adaptations. i'm not talking about distribution. totally different business entirely unrelated to this film. james cameron isn't interested in getting people to read battle angel alita or employ japanese animators to adapt it. he's interested in showing people james cameron's battle angel alita movie. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
Posts: 4824 |
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I can understand being skeptical of Alita but there have been several well recieved Japanese live action anime remakes over the years. Space Battleship Yamato, Gintama, Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte, and the Japanese Death Note movies are generally well liked. The live action FMA was more mixed but I thought it was a decent remake and even fans who didn't care for it liked the special effects for it.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18189 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Just got back from a 3D IMAX showing of the movie, which I think is the ideal way to see it if such an option exists in your region. As someone who's been anticipating this movie for almost 20 years, I also absolutely loved it. The movie is basically everything that I hoped it would be, and if this isn't impressive 3D CGI then I'd like to know what would impress because it's some of the best I've seen in a live-action movie. If I have any complaint it's that keeping it at PG-13 restrains the ultra-graphic nature of the source material.
Still, I'm probably going to go see it a second time in theaters, and I can count the movies I've ever done that for on one hand. |
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