Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron's Alita: Battle Angel

I'm not sure Vector's fate in the original manga is the same as his in Last Order... So probably 4 fates.

I watched the OVA right before watching the film, and I thought they aged well.

Not being familiar with the Manga at all, and going to see this film solely on the premise itself, and the fact that the trailers looked cool, I thought the movie was really good. Granted, as its TV Tropes page states, the film utilizes a lot of plots and cliches we've already seen in countless other films, but to its credit, people go to see a film like this for its action and fight scenes, and the film doesn't disappoint in that regard.

As many have said, the CGI and Motion Capture for Alita/Rosa Salazar is, for the most part OK, but, was it just me or did Alita, in some scenes (mostly crowd scenes) literally look like a Pixar character wondering around in the live-action world? Her reaction to chocolate, for example, looked particularly cartoon-ish.

But, I enjoyed myself. I'm often a sucker for Action Girl / Female Protagonist films, and I felt the film did everything you'd expect it to. I also liked that Alita could be a snarker, which surprised me (the trailers really don't play that part up).

I think one major gripe I have (apart from the cliches it relies on), is I wish the nurse character Gerhad was more involved in the story. Instead, she's just Ido's assistant, and doesn't contribute much else, despite the fact that she's spiritually, Alita's adoptive mother. We see a little bit of that in the locker room scenes, but still, she doesn't say much, and is relegated to the background. That bothered me quite a bit. Maybe they can rectify that if there's ever a sequel.

Saw it today. It was pretty dang great. They moved some stuff around and tried to tie as many of the early stories together as they could, but I don't think much was really lost in the process. I have a few nitpicks, but they're really minor. Alita's kiais were a little silly. Mostly just the one with the flashback in the middle. Also Desty wasn't shown to have a platter of flan in hand. Really out of character, there.

Maybe it's because I watched them after the film… still, the anime's plot is extremely rushed, it feels like none of the scenes are given the weight they deserve.

Now one thing is sure, it's so 90s is hurts. I actually remember some of the scenes from those ads for the Manga-Mania VHS collection. Those that emphasized the gore, grit and sex of anime as opposed to the censored stuff we had on TV. Good times.

The weird thing is that the assistant is a film-original character. In the manga Ido's assistant was a dude, and he was much more talkative.

I've only just discovered Nova in the manga, but… isn't film!Nova like a completely different character…?

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 17th 2019 at 12:15:15 PM

Having just saw the movie, minus a few clunky exposition scens and a slightly rushed ending, I really really liked the movie. I'd say it's at least on par with Edge of Tomorrow and Speed Racer in terms of good live action anime/manga.

It's at 59% on RT now, by the way.

Manga!Nova is pretty much a looming presence for the first half of the manga. He is pretty much the guy antagonists made a deal with, and it never is a pretty thing.

And his physical debut is pretty much the moment the Status Quo is altered forever.

Movie!Nova isn't really a character yet. We just know he's the puppet-master behind Vector. Where he is has changed, though. The flan thing was a joke. I would expect that character trait in a hypothetical sequel we probably will not get, but it would've undermined the sense of menace they clearly wanted to build.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Feb 17th 2019 at 7:56:12 AM

I agree having him eat a flan in that scene would have been pointless fan service.

I want to believe that they're confident in getting a sequel if they hired Edward Norton (apparently) to play Nova, but I'm not getting my hopes up…

If they make a sequel, I wonder what the story will be about. I don't think the rest of the manga will be easy to adapt as feature films.

Also one may wonder why there has been no anime adaptation since the OVA.

Jashugan, Zapan's revenge, and post-timeskip stuff can work I'd say.

Sweet Mama Jama, I'm in love. This movie was spectacular. I loved the characters, I loved the action, dialogue could be hit or miss, but it certainly had memorable lines.

They used the setting for all it was worth, which really tickled the sci-fi nerd in me.

Honestly, I like the fact that, just like with Speed Racer, the filmmakers completely embraced the fact that it was essentially a live-action anime rather than try to tone it down to something less fantastic.

Yeah, as a big big fan of the manga, this was exactly what I wanted. Some parts were a bit cheesy, but it hit so many nails on the head from character to set design to action to post-apocalytic feel that I don't care. My SO loved it as well, and she was a complete newcomer to the franchise.

It's a very faithful adaptation of the first three volumes, although slightly remixed in ways that don't really affect things too much. Iron city is significantly less of a crapsack world in this adaptation than in the manga though, it's almost a modern urban settlement rather than the almost Mad Max style dystopia of the manga.

This movie, even though it's kinda flawed in some ways (the writing in some places isn't as strong as it could be) is exactly the kind of anime/manga adaptation we've been wanting Hollywood to do for absolutely ages. Definitely a Blu-ray buy for me.

If they somehow manage to fit Fogia in the sequel (provided there is one), which actor would imagine in the role? Dwayne Johnson could be funny.

I thought Josh Brolin for a second, but ideally we'd need someone closer to her own age. It's not portrayed as a May–December Romance after all, but a relationship between equals.

I also must say I appreciate the Hispanic elements of the setting. Not something you see very often.

I mean, she's kinda centuries old, so…

The Mayan-ish motifs on Zapan's armor were also a nice touch.

So, I'd been trying to figure out why the director's name sounds familiar to me, so I looked up "Robert Rodriquez" on IMDB, and looked through his resume, before realizing, "Oh, snap! He directed The Faculty !"

Edited by Brandon on Feb 18th 2019 at 2:07:01 AM

Also the Mexico trilogy, From Dusk Till Dawn, the Sin City films, the “Spy Kids” films, Sparkboy and Lavagirl, Grindhouse: Planet Terror, and the Machete films.

He has a lot of well known films under his belt. Good and bad.

Edited by ManOfSin on Feb 18th 2019 at 6:19:31 AM

I've never seen any of those movies... yet.

Well, I mean, I've seen reviews for Spy Kids...

…Wait, he also did Sharkboy and Lavagirl…??

Can't say he isn't varied in his tastes.