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I'm aware of that trope as well, yes. You're agreeing with me, I get it. That's one example, I mean, I don't want to spoiler the whole film from start to finish...


I mean, it's not in order, but I'm pretty sure I most of the major plot points?

Huh, I think Alita has a pretty interesting take on the teenager comes of age story.

Generally, the way this goes is:

- parents tell teen to do/avoid X
- teen rebelliously disregards advice
- bad things result
- teenager shows developing maturity by acknowledging parents were right all along

With Alita, it’s actually Ido who has to work through his daughter-complex. In fact, Ido is wrong to want to treat this badass warrior as a frail child/doll.

Interestingly, Alita does “come of age” in her arc, just not by realizing the wisdom of her father figure’s advice. Rather, she grows into being a more complex person by realizing that she must embrace her abilities.

One thing I thought again and again while watching this film was, “this is how they should have handled Rey in these new SW movies.”

Box office has not been great.

No, it’s doing pretty well especially considering how badly films have been doing generally:

https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/02/19/alita-battle-angel-box-office-opening-weekend-estimates/

It only made $6mm more than week two of the Lego movie. Hopefully it's international sales are ok.

I have nothing against it except the eyes creep me out.

 Frazzled wrote:
It only made $6mm more than week two of the Lego movie. Hopefully it's international sales are ok.

I have nothing against it except the eyes creep me out.

Internationally, it's doing just fine. If the US is so-so, and the movie finishes net profitable, I think it gets a lower-budget sequel.

The problem is it isn't just some film, it's a James-I made 2 of the top grossing movies ever-Cameron passion project.

AND the studio was just bought by Dis-I own your childhood, except for the Hasbro and DC parts-Ney.

So lack luster box office and a new owner should equal dead, EXCEPT for James Camron. How much does Disney want to be his new best friend.

Of course Cameron is under some delusion that we all want to see more Avatar so he may not care enough.

Cameron also made the Dark Angel TV show, which was terrible. He was also Executive Producer for Sanctum, which was not a good film.

Also, Rodriguez did the actual work on Alita.

As a Fox property with a TON of story material behind it, with the bonus of a female protagonist, that makes it more likely the Disney does a sequel. It's exactly the sort of thing that would make a great counterpoint to the MCU.

Alita is beating domestic projections by over 50%. This flick was never going to open like a MCU movie. The story here is that somehow, this quirky and largely unknown property did NOT fall flat on it’s huge-eyed face, despite perceived audience indifference and critical snobbery.

I’d watch an Alita sequel. I also want to see more Avatar.

 AduroT wrote:
I’d watch an Alita sequel. I also want to see more Avatar.

My twin sister bloody hates sci fi, but she lets me drag her to the good ones because she knows I will ONLY take her to the good ones, she loved Alita and Avatar and to be frank, any film I can enjoy with the family and the sister's family, that's a film I will watch the crap out of, seen Alita twice now, taking the parents to see it next.

Just watched the movie, never heard of the manga before so not a long time fan at all and had little expectation. The storytelling was good, but not great. It was a bit heavy on exposition, but it's a problem with science fiction movies with socio-political plot. The special effect were without surprise great. The acting was terrible though and some portions of the script were rather stupid.

 AduroT wrote:
I’d watch an Alita sequel. I also want to see more Avatar.

I think there's a heck of a lot of potential for a sequel, especially since the things that made this movie drag have largely been resolved by the end. The movie changed around a lot of stuff about the setting, so it obviously won't be a staight retelling, but the next three arcs of the manga have a lot of stuff to pick and choose from.

To be perfectly honest; the Hugo Story arc, while establishing the setting is also (imho) the weakest of the arcs of BAA.

If sequels get made; I'm looking forward to the Barjack arc.

I agree with that. Vol 1 was mostly worldbuilding, and Vol 2 was kind of experimental. Vol 3+ is where the story finds its footing and gets going

Hugo’s arc is the weakest in the OVA as well.

But I’d agree it is even weaker in this film. Generally, the OVA is a lot more horrific than this movie and it doesn’t shy away from the notion that waking up as a head plugged into a robot body might be a bit of a shock to one’s psyche. In the OVA, it pretty much snaps Hugo’s mind, which is why he’s doing something as fething stupid as climbing the tube.

In the movie, he has a casual line to Alita earlier that if he had a cyborg body like hers he’d definitely climb the tube. Uh what? There a tons of hard body denizens of Iron City and none of them are doing that. Because obviously it doesn’t work. Only a wacko would try it. So is Hugo’s line just a bit of hyperbole? Well, he’s not really portrayed as obviously deranged by the time he’s climbing so ... This was just not handled well.

And again, the reason is because this is a PG-13 film rather than a soft-ish R. The movie really shies away from the outright body horror of the source material. Another example would be not seeing the dog get eviscerated, which is actually emotionally required to prime the audience for Alita painting her face with its blood. The way its portrayed in the film, the blood warpaint feels pretty hollow, and maybe even slightly embarassing. In the OVA, it’s clear that when Alita paints on those blood stripes, she becomes the avenger of the weak.

But yeah we were never going to get a proper Rated-R movie because to justify spending so much on making and marketing movies today, you have to sell it to the broadest possible audience.

I’m not too sad that Hugo’s arc was weak. I’m not too sad that his portrayal was less than engaging. I think the main point about this character is, there’s not really a good reason for Alita to fall in love with him. She falls for him not because he’s all that great or whatever but just because she’s a teenager and teenagers have crushes that don’t have to make sense.

 Manchu wrote:
Hugo’s arc is the weakest in the OVA as well.

But I’d agree it is even weaker in this film. Generally, the OVA is a lot more horrific than this movie and it doesn’t shy away from the notion that waking up as a head plugged into a robot body might be a bit of a shock to one’s psyche. In the OVA, it pretty much snaps Hugo’s mind, which is why he’s doing something as fething stupid as climbing the tube.

In the movie, he has a casual line to Alita earlier that if he had a cyborg body like hers he’d definitely climb the tube. Uh what? There a tons of hard body denizens of Iron City and none of them are doing that. Because obviously it doesn’t work. Only a wacko would try it. So is Hugo’s line just a bit of hyperbole? Well, he’s not really portrayed as obviously deranged by the time he’s climbing so ... This was just not handled well.

Well, at that point,

But if that’s true then it doesn’t really make sense that Alita convinces him to come down so easily.

In the OVA, it makes more sense because he’s out of his mind and Alita brings him to his senses.

Saw it today finally.

It exceeded my expectations. Granted they were low, but it was much better than I was expecting. The romance was nauseating, there were some jarring plot transitions and a couple other minor bits, but on the whole it was a pretty solid flick that kept me more entertained than I had anticipated.

I saw it twice now and cannot wait to see it in 3D as it is supposed to be good there. I am not a a fan of 3D movies.

The reviews were very harsh the first week. It is doing way better than they predicted...even in China. It looks like it will make a profit. Japan could make it a huge success perhaps.

One review that trashed it hard talked about how Alita used her own blood to paint her face. Are they that obvious about trashing the film or are they watching a different movie. How does a Film Critic get that wrong. It was the dog's blood. ofc

So seemingly the movie broke some records in China and made over 64 millions on it's opening weekend, putting it in a good spot to make a return on the high production cost.

Speaking of which; the movie made it clear that sequels are in consideration. Those will probably a bit cheaper, since the technology and assets have been created.

Finally saw it. Thought it was pretty good and looking forward to the sequels. My wife was a bit disappointed that it isn't a "one-&-done" movie. She's getting a bit tired of "franchises" at the moment.

I never found the eyes to be distracting, quite the opposite, as my wife kept teasing my that I had a crush on Alita. But there were a few moments when Alita laughed that her mouth seemed off. Like, too much gums or something. But there are real people like that, so it certainly didn't seem like an effects issue.

I watched the OVA for the first time a few months ago, so that's the extent of the story I know. It looks like there are some interesting places they could take the story.

-

 Manchu wrote:
But if that’s true then it doesn’t really make sense that Alita convinces him to come down so easily.

In the OVA, it makes more sense because he’s out of his mind and Alita brings him to his senses.

True. I think it was a combination of Hugo's motives being very different here, but still wanting to have that iconic scene. I'm still impressed that they actually followed through on it, though.

I didn't think the trailers for this looked too great, honestly, but given the positive reviews I read here along with James Cameron, I went to see it last night. I wound up liking it quite a bit. Aside from the aforementioned Hugo weakness it was very solid overall.

I hope some sequels get greenlighted and I want to know more about the backstory.

Yes, I would definitely go see a sequel.

 Manchu wrote:
Yes, I would definitely go see a sequel.

I'm just hoping the sequel will do something about the eyes, they should be like, twice as big. Sailor Moon should be saying 'I think those eyes are a tad large'.

In all seriousness, they might turn it down a bit. One nice thing about the manga was how Alita (despite being a cyborg) looked older and more mature as the book went on. Reducing the doe eyes (which communicate youth and innocence since baby eyes are proportionally larger on the face) would do some of that.

I just saw the movie earlier this evening, and I loved it! The story was interesting, the characters were interesting, the visuals were awesome, and the ending definitely left me wanting more! This absolutely needs a sequel.

 admironheart wrote:
I saw it twice now and cannot wait to see it in 3D as it is supposed to be good there.

I saw it in IMAX 3D, and I enjoyed it.

Thinking about it, this is a 3-quadrant movie:
* Young women (who will ID with Alita's Hero's Journey)
+ Older men (who ID with Ido being a good father)
+ Older women (who ID with Chiren and her redemptive journey)

Notably, it does not specifically appeal to young men, which is an odd choice, but understandable given how much dude-friendly programming is already out there; IMO, this should be getting more female butts in seats. OTOH, it's doing well in Asia, which makes sense, given how solid the FX are, along with the family theme, and winning fights via speed and skill vs size and strength.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 admironheart wrote:
I saw it twice now and cannot wait to see it in 3D as it is supposed to be good there.

I saw it in IMAX 3D, and I enjoyed it.

Thinking about it, this is a 3-quadrant movie:
* Young women (who will ID with Alita's Hero's Journey)
+ Older men (who ID with Ido being a good father)
+ Older women (who ID with Chiren and her redemptive journey)

Notably, it does not specifically appeal to young men, which is an odd choice, but understandable given how much dude-friendly programming is already out there; IMO, this should be getting more female butts in seats. OTOH, it's doing well in Asia, which makes sense, given how solid the FX are, along with the family theme, and winning fights via speed and skill vs size and strength.

Kind-of agree, however one thing might actually appeal to the younger men audience: Alita is quite beautiful. Both visually as a movie, and the character herself. Men in general are visual creatures, so even if we cannot ID with any of the characters' "journeys" we can at least enjoy the eye-candy and action.
At least, that is part of the appeal for me as a 30+ young man.

-

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I saw it in IMAX 3D, and I enjoyed it.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I pretty much never see movies in 3D. Most modern 3D movies aren't shot with 3D cameras, they're shot with normal equipment and then extrapolated out to 3D later. You guys all probably know this already. In my experience I pretty much universally hate movies that were converted like this: they usually look very muddled. Add to that you're watching the movie through darkened lenses, and most theaters don't properly compensate the lighting (or worse, have old bulbs) and you tend to get muddy, hard to follow movies where you can't really well what is going on.

We do have a LieMax here, so I went to that, and I didn't realize that it was the 3D version until I got there because apparently I can't read. And you know what? It was a really good experience. The exception to the "3D usually sucks" rules appears to be movies James Cameron is connected to: Avatar looked great, the Titanic 3D remastered re-release a while back looked terrific, and then this.