Line #22 YMMV/AlitaBattleAngel


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2	* AudienceColoringAdaptation: The manga's obscurity, compared to other works from TheEighties that at least received major anime adaptations, had the accidental effect of working in favor of the film's reception, as there were so few people actually familiar with the manga's full story that there could be few discussions about how faithful it was. However, it also had the effect of coloring the expectations of new readers of the manga according to the actual changes the movie makes, such as the several cases of AdaptationalBackstoryChange and CompositeCharacter.
3	* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Alita and Grewishka's third showdown is a CurbStompBattle, as Alita easily takes out Grewishka with the Damascus Blade.]]
4	* AwardSnub: In spite of the impressive visuals, the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s passed the film over for a Best Visual Effects nomination.
5	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
6	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmucVmr60HQ "Lullaby for a Soldier"]] from ''Songs of Anarchy Vol. 3'' (the soundtrack of ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'') manages to give the first trailer a haunting, eerie feel. This is sort of a SpiritualSuccessor to the similarly eerie [[https://youtu.be/mOdzvwKxcmQ "Cyborg Mermaid"]], the theme for the old [=OVAs=].
7	** Then the second trailer gives us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTE8ADy2h50 J2's female-fronted cover]] of Music/LinkinPark's ''New Divide'', featuring the vocalist Avery. Especially poignant due to the second trailer's release being very close to the one year anniversary of Chester Bennington's death.
8	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8fTk6oKQg Swan Song]]" by Music/DuaLipa, a [[{{Determinator}} defiant and hopeful song]] that fits the the post-apocalyptic technological world of the story.
9	** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K_CzTLFpAA Motorball]]'', from the score by Music/JunkieXL. Holy ''fuck'', those sampled bass beats from ''[[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Brothers in Arms]]''.
10	* ClicheStorm: A common criticism was that many tropes in the film have grown so omnipresent in sci-fi cinema over the past couple of decades that they no longer feel fresh. Ironically, the film's source material [[GenrePopularizer likely inspired and contributed]] to the proliferation of those tropes in the first place (with perhaps the exception of ''Film/{{Rollerball}}''), catching Creator/JamesCameron's interest back then. The script, although since revised, was first written by Cameron 20 years before its release.
11	* CompleteMonster:
12	** [[BigBad Nova]], the ruler of Zalem, reigns over the world like a god from above. Keeping the people of Iron City oppressed and hopeless while running Zalem as a totalitarian dictatorship, Nova regularly [[PlayingWithSyringes performs experiments]] that create monsters like Grewishka and result in massive amounts of death. Happily overriding the minds of his followers when convenient, Nova also has his pawn Vector harvest countless people for their organs, a state that is implied to keep them [[AndIMustScream alive and conscious]] as he takes them for his experiments. When Alita's beloved Hugo attempts to climb to Zalem, Nova simply sends a spiked ring down to kill him [[ForTheEvulz for the sheer amusement of it]]. With a [[MadScientist scientific mind unfettered by morality or ethics]], Nova shows why he is Alita's worst enemy.
13	** [[TheHeavy Vector]], Nova's liaison between Zalem and Iron City, is one of the most powerful men in Iron City and also its most corrupt. With swathes of murder tracing back to his head through his cyborg thugs, Vector also manages the [[BloodSport Motorball]] games, a sport where cyborgs viciously maim and kill each other in intense races. Vector has other innocent cyborgs dismembered and their enhancements stolen to let his Motorball players augment themselves to become even more dangerous and vicious -- horribly killing one victim of this with a blowtorch to keep his identity covert -- and attempts to have Alita killed in one of these rigged games on Nova's behalf. Vector is ultimately revealed to be the one in charge of sending those Nova favors to Zalem, extracting their brains and organs and sending them up, alive and conscious, for Nova's experiments, a fate suffered by Dr. Ito's ex-wife Dr. Chiren when she tries to back out of Vector's operation.
14	* CriticalDissonance: Critics generally think the film is somewhere between mediocre and okay, but fans of the source material, love it (on Rotten Tomatoes, the critic approval is 61%, while for audiences it's '''92%'''). It's been lauded by the anime community as the first live-action Hollywood adaptation of manga series to not suck.
15	* CultClassic: While the film is a modest success, beating the low expectations of box office pundits who predicted it to be a gigantic flop, it didn't manage to become a runaway hit. Still, it got a ''[[CriticalDissonance very]]'' [[CriticalDissonance warm reception]] from the majority of the fans of both the {{Cyberpunk}} genre and the [[Manga/BattleAngelAlita source material]], quickly getting the FanNickname of "the first Hollywood film adaptation of manga series that did ''not suck''", and gaining the dedicated fanbase characteristic of this trope basically right after its release.
16	* DirectorDisplacement: Producer and co-writer Creator/JamesCameron has vigorously stepped up to promote the film since it has been a pet project of his for long -- he was unable to direct it due to his commitment on the ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' sequels. His name showed up quite a bit more in the marketing than the director's, Creator/RobertRodriguez.
17	* EnsembleDarkhorse: A lot of people have said that [=McTeague=] (the movie's [[AdaptationNameChange version of Murdock]]) unexpectedly [[https://www.cbr.com/alita-battle-angel-mcteague-robot-dogs-spinoff/ steals the show]] despite his limited screen time, thanks to being an [[CoolOldGuy aging but badass]] [[PetTheDog dog-loving]] bounty hunter who [[spoiler:sides with the heroes against Grewishka after he [[KickTheDog kills Alita's puppy]]]] like a futuristic Franchise/JohnWick. Even more so when a short advertisement on Twitter confirmed that he [[spoiler: [[https://twitter.com/dog_rates/status/1097949040946212864 rescued and repaired]] the dog off-screen.]]
18	* EvilIsCool: Vector. [[HilariousInHindsight He dresses like]] Film/{{Blade}} and has a calm disposition to everything, even to being threatened by Nova and Alita.
19	* FandomRivalry: With ''Film/CityHunterTheCupidsPerfume'' in France, strangely, for it has the same kind of CriticalDissonance and [[ApprovalOfGod approval by the manga's creator]].
20	* FriendlyFandoms: With ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', as both films are Hollywood adaptations of Japanese properties, from mediums that have historically not been kind to live action Hollywood adaptations. It helps that [[HilariousInHindsight both Sonic and Alita had post-trailer redesigns to make their eyes larger to make them more adorable]]; Creator/TimMiller produced ''Sonic'' and directed ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'', another film produced by Creator/JamesCameron; and both ''Sonic'' and ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' involve blue furry aliens.
21	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Among the foreign markets the film did best in Russia (which is second in the world's box office, behind only South Korea, where it was released a full week earlier) and France (where [[Manga/BattleAngelAlita the original manga]] is much better known than in the US) taking the third place. And of course there is the film's biggest market, China.
22	%%* HarsherInHindsight: The film's theme song is "Swan Song", with lyrics that say "this is not a swan song". Ironically enough, the film would end up becoming Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox's SwanSong before being bought by Creator/{{Disney}}, as the last film to be released before Disney's buyout.
23	* HilariousInHindsight: This film's version of Vector looks just like Film/{{Blade}}. He even has the all-black ensemble of sunglasses, trenchcoat, and high-top fade. Then it was revealed in SDCC 2019 that Creator/MahershalaAli was cast as Blade for the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse.
24	* HoYay: Right before Alita offers to give her heart to him so he can pay to get to Zalem, Hugo wakes up {{shirtless\|scene}} and says he spent the night drinking with Vector.
25	* LGBTFanbase: The film has a significant trans women audience as Alita is exploring a new body and feeling euphoria with it, against the gatekeeping of her identity.
26	* MemeticMutation: Alita's "anime eyes". [[labelnote:Explanation]]The first trailer depicted Alita with abnormally large eyes, which quickly gained notoriety for how unnatural they make her look. The most common joke is that the filmmakers were trying to make her look like a live-action anime character. And according to the director himself, that's indeed part of the intention.[[/labelnote]]
27	** Several Twitter users put giant googly-eyes over their actual eyes while talking about their "''Alita: Battle Angel'' cosplay".
28	** There have been plenty of jokes comparing Alita to owls or tarsiers, while some other jokes point out the anatomical issues of having eyeballs that are so big.
29	** Relating to all of the above, some have joked that the film was delayed because of the eyes not being big enough in the first trailer.
30	* {{Narm}}:
31	** Alita literally offering to give her heart to Hugo. Even if it was an iconic moment from the source material, it's an unbearably obvious metaphor that doesn't translate well to film, especially considering the rushed nature of the love story in the film version. This goes double for seeing the scene in the trailer, where it doesn't have the context surrounding it and feels especially over-the-top.
32	** Alita's impassioned speech (complete with uplifting music) seeking the Hunter-Warriors' aid against Grewishka comes across as far too earnest to be taken seriously, especially when she mentions uniting against "a common foe" and calls the other hunters "brothers and sisters" when she has only been a HW herself for less than an hour. Zapan scoffing at the end of it comes off less as, "He's a mean jerk" (though he is) and more like, "Yeah, that ''was'' rather silly, wasn't it?"
33	** The over the top way Alita screams in fury whenever she fights and her overly impassioned expressions can be hard to take seriously at times.
34	* NarmCharm:
35	** When Grewishka [[spoiler:spitefully [[KickTheDog harpoons the adorable little dog]] that Alita befriended earlier in the film, Alita crouches down and uses the little dog's blood ''as her warpaint'']]. And thanks to Alita's sheer TranquilFury and the anticipation of an ass-kicking for [[TheBrute Grewishka]], it works.
36	** When Ido is picking up what's left of Alita after her second fight against Grewishka, the sadness is undercut by [=McTeague=] cooing proudly over his returning attack dogs in the background. But in a movie that's full of disjointed and bizarre things, it kind of fits right in, and is darkly funny besides.
37	** Christoph Waltz scurrying around with a gigantic rocket hammer taller than him looks fairly absurd, but it's likely intentionally goofy.
38	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: ''Alita: Battle Angel'' has been criticized for being a ClicheStorm. The original ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' is a classic of {{cyberpunk}} anime and inspired a lot of the tropes that ''Alita'' got critical heat for using. This is compounded by the DevelopmentHell that the film sat in for ''decades''. If it had been made 20 years earlier, its tropes would have been a lot more novel, especially to Western audiences who were not quite as familiar with anime at the time.
39	* OneSceneWonder: [=McTeague=], an hunter-warrior at the Kansas Bar. A CoolOldGuy and dog lover (he's got four cyborg dogs), he also proves to be a genuinely nice man compared to his peers, as he's the only one among them to follow Ido and Hugo down in the sewers to save Alita from Grewishka. He's also played by Rodriguez regular Jeff Fahey.
40	* SoOkayItsAverage: The general critical reception appears to be this. Critics liked the film's action sequences and visual flair and the heart given by Rosa Salazar's performance, but felt the story was overpacked and ended on an unnecessary SequelHook. [[CriticalDissonance The audience, on the other hand]]...
41	* TaintedByThePreview: Reception for the first trailer was mixed, with praise for the atmosphere while Alita's bulbous eyes left the internet polarized.
42	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Vector. [[spoiler:He's got little to no agency of his own compared to the other versions of the character, being [[VillainOverride frequently controlled by Nova to speak through him]], and like in the OVA he suffers DeathByAdaptation.]]
43	* UnintentionalUncannyValley: Rosa Salazar plays Alita via MotionCapture, which has a tendency to fall into the valley no matter what. However, the real uncanniness comes from the fact that Alita's [[spoiler:and her former squad's]] eyes [[BigAnimeEyes are enlarged]], [[https://cdn.empireonline.com/jpg/80/0/0/1000/563/0/north/0/0/0/0/0/c/features/5a2af31f02cfbaa305214f56/battle-angel-alita.jpg making her look like an actual anime character come to life]]. [[http://www.multiversitycomics.com/reviews/alita-battle-angel/ The effect is exacerbated by the fact that other cyborgs are more overtly modified (with completely mechanical, shining bodies), but have human faces that make them easier to look at.]] It's summed up best by [[https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/8/16750806/alita-battle-angel-robert-rodriguez-trailer-watch this review]] from ''[=TheVerge=]''.
44	-->"The character looks like an anime doll come to life, or like a Disney character that's just a hair off from normal. It's probably [[IntendedAudienceReaction a deliberate choice]], meant to remind viewers at every moment that Alita isn't human. But after so many years of CGI animators trying to mimic convincing human faces and not entirely succeeding, it’s still unsettling to see a character hovering this close to realistic, while staying this far away from it."
45	** Alita's irises were made bigger following the complaints about the first trailer over a year before release. That change has not been reported that much, but many people reportedly didn't have a problem with the character's design in the final product, so the latter move was a good call.
46	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: While many early reviews have criticized the film's script, the one thing that has been consistently praised is the film's visuals, which look stunning, especially in 3D.

Context YMMV / AlitaBattleAngel