Alita - Battle Angel

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Ares
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Alita - Battle Angel

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Anyone check out this film yet? It's gotten very good word of mouth from some of the Youtubers I watch, and as a fan of the original manga I'd be happy if we finally got a decent live-action film adaptation of a manga/anime.
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Davies
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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I haven't read the manga (and most of what I've heard makes me go 'huh?') but I thought it was very entertaining as an adaptation and expansion of the OAV series, which I have seen; some of the scenes are a bit mawkish and overwrought, such as Alita's attempt to recruit other Hunter Warriors to help her fight Grewishka -- but as she may have been unconsciously looking for a fight, they become a bit more understandable. I'd give it a solid A-.
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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Davies wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 4:26 am I haven't read the manga (and most of what I've heard makes me go 'huh?') but I thought it was very entertaining as an adaptation and expansion of the OAV series, which I have seen; some of the scenes are a bit mawkish and overwrought, such as Alita's attempt to recruit other Hunter Warriors to help her fight Grewishka -- but as she may have been unconsciously looking for a fight, they become a bit more understandable. I'd give it a solid A-.
Yeah I agree with Fuzzy. Good Solid A imo. thre visuals are amazing as expected from a Cameron film and Robert Rodriguez shows he has a great respect for Anime as a medium as this to me is one of the BEST anime to film adaptations ive ever seen. I wont say its a master class in filmmaking or Oscar worthy but it sure as hell is a visual spectacle and faithful to the OVA as Fuzzy said.

Well worth a trip to the theater to see in regular or Imax
Last edited by catsi563 on Wed Feb 20, 2019 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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catsi563 wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:47 am Yeha I agree with Fuzzy.
Ehm? :)

As I think quite highly of FuzzyBoots, I guess that's a compliment. Sort of. :D
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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Ares wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:59 am Anyone check out this film yet? It's gotten very good word of mouth from some of the Youtubers I watch, and as a fan of the original manga I'd be happy if we finally got a decent live-action film adaptation of a manga/anime.
I went to watch it last night and, as a fan of the comic, I think it's really good.
The overall story tries to cover the first arc of the manga (usually refered to as Battle Angel) including element from the second and fourth arc (Killing Angel and Angel of Death) and it does a pretty good job. There are some substatial differences and some of the characters aren't from the original story, but from the old animated adaptation. Still I think that for a 2 hours movie it was well both entertaining and it managed to convey the visuals and most of the feeling I got reading the original story.
Now there are two major elements that wereleft out and it kind of saddened me. First, in the Manga Alita's personality changed (slightly) every time she switched her body; true to the German phisophers that inspired him, Kishiro took the Nietzche's (mis)quote "the mind is a plaything of the body" and used these changes to underline the psychological evolution of the character. Of courese it was impossible to pack this idea in 120 minutes without seriously ruining the movie. The second element that was left out was the dark side of Ido, the doctor that saved Alita: in the manga he's a very compasionate man, but also a sadist that satisfy his bloodlust acting as a bounty hunter. This element was completely absent from the movie and Ido acts as a much more run of the mill fatherly figure.

Overall it's a very entertaining movie that manages to do one really interesting thing: it doesn't provide an absolute moral compass. Some of the trailers kind of implied a classic "evil empire" scenario, but the movie doesn't work on that premise. Just like the amnesiac main character, the audience doesn't have any moral references except those that we build on our own.
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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Woodclaw wrote: Fri Feb 22, 2019 8:27 am The second element that was left out was the dark side of Ido, the doctor that saved Alita: in the manga he's a very compasionate man, but also a sadist that satisfy his bloodlust acting as a bounty hunter. This element was completely absent from the movie and Ido acts as a much more run of the mill fatherly figure.
I think here the desire to get a PG-13 rating prevented that, though I'll note that the depiction of what this Ido does to his daughter's killer is portrayed pretty sadistically.
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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I thought it was okay. I'll probably pick it up if I ever find the dvd in a bargain bin one day, but I'm not going to rush to buy it when it comes out.
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

Post by Jabroniville »

I thought it was pretty kick-ass. Obviously Americanized in parts (ie. the ENDLESS fight scenes). Jamming in multiple chapters of the manga was obvious, too, in that it had multiple "climaxes" (and thus, more fighting jammed in). Doctor Ido's assistant is basically a non-character, and there's almost a superfluous amount of Evil Cyborgs, too.

But it REALLY captures a distinct visual vibe- the cyborgs being creepily inhuman is dead-on. The whole "human face atop a mechanical body" thing is deliberately Uncanny Valley enough that it works, and Alita having giant eyes actually keeps her a step beyond that, and avoids the Valley to me. I know others seeing clips felt the opposite, but she becomes MORE inhuman as a result, and more of a delightful cartoon girl.

It misses some of the manga's deeper themes, such as the nature of humanity and the soul, but they don't have all day. Zolom (Salem?) being a literal thing that we see bits of instead of this more metaphorical "Heaven" that everyone's striving for, is different, too, from what I understand.
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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Davies wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:51 amEhm? :)

As I think quite highly of FuzzyBoots, I guess that's a compliment. Sort of. :D
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Re: Alita - Battle Angel

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and Alita having giant eyes actually keeps her a step beyond that, and avoids the Valley to me. I know others seeing clips felt the opposite, but she becomes MORE inhuman as a result, and more of a delightful cartoon girl
This was an interesting thing for me, when I initially saw stills and posters the attempt at RLing Anime eyes really was a sticking point for me against the movie, I was shocked to find that as the movie progressed that I barely noticed the anime eyes at all the pacing and action and other visuals insured that the odd eyes just became part of the spectacle for me.
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