Alita: Battle Angel (new Cameron/Rodriguez SF epic)

They had the audacity to hold out for a part 2. A common trend now.

 

Just do what I do now, go in with very very low expectations.

 

Was Geppetto/Walz killing ladies of the night, coming in with blood statined clothes?
Romantic lead young guy Hugo had a mole/wart thing under his eye, made him more human I guess. Film had a very anticlimactic ending. Hugo‘s ( temporarily..we’ll never know )death was pretty gruesome.

 

Hugo was not particularly bright.

 

Film wasn’t as clever as the producer/director thought.

 

Ido is a registered hunter-warrior (bounty hunter), the income he earns from his kills/captures help to keep his clinic open. He explains his reasons why in the movie.

 

If they followed the manga to a T there's at least 3-4 movies of material to flesh out the story properly, they crammed in as much as they could in the first one.

 

My understanding was the first one was fleshed out from the first three manga's.

Not having read the manga's, I can't really comment.

Would first need to know what the original material was and how closely they intended to follow the original story.

So far, in the movie, it seemed like a quick and not necessarily an intelligent way to kill off a character. Was this in the book? Don't know, at this point.

Movie modern movie adaptations of successful original works tend to follow them as the author intended. Harry Potter, The Twilight Saga, Hunger Games.

If you alienate the fans that you have, then your chances for a successful franchise are greatly reduced.

I would venture to say that Cameron/Landau/Rodriguez, had intended on the Japanese and Chinese markets to develop a successful franchise out of Alita. Best not disappoint the fans there.

From Syfy.com

"Leave it to James Cameron to discover how you bring a manga to the big screen," writes Max Covill at Film School Rejects. "The secret, it turns out, is that you don't mess up the source material."

"Alita: Battle Angel makes plenty of deviations from Yukito Kishiro's seminal manga, but it certainly keeps the episodic nature of the original, which was released in chapters and volumes. That's perhaps why it ends the way it does, a cliffhanger that feels like it's only the start of a story because it is. Not everyone loved this clear sequel-bait, and Polygon's Karen Han notes that the film falls into a trap that lots of would-be franchise-starters have."

"Hardcore manga fans no-doubt know that there's more to the Alita story than can fit in one movie, but casual viewers don't, especially because Alita isn't quite as well-known in the U.S. as some other mangas. Furthermore, the movie itself doesn't hint that it's only the first part of many, meaning the ending feels a bit like you've been tricked into running into a brick wall."

 

Early tracking for China suggests an opening weekend of only $50 million, not good. It will be hard pressed to pass $80-100 million, hope they all flew coach to the premiere in Beijing yesterday .

 

If you've ever hung out at DeviantArt as I have you'll find there are dozens of manga/anime haters threads (now closed immediately by mods) where most center around why anyone would be so fixated on such a genre of animation and art. Very few focused on the stories. Most liked posting their manga art and by the looks of the DeviantArt portfolios that's pretty much all that's presented.

If you want to find a community that is sick of manga and anime, visit DeviantArt and browse the galleries and portfolios.

Why do you think I settled on SH forums and I'm an artist, cartoonist, photographer and a musician?

 

I went & saw this last night , I loved the film , it looks great , story is enough to keep it moving , great action and the 3-D looked Amazing !! ........... I knew nothing about the Character or story going in , I really hope they make more .....

 

That'll depend entirely on its overseas take. It seems unlikely to end up with a great US total, and my gut says it probably won't do enough WW to merit a sequel, but we'll have to wait and see...

 

Saw it last night as well. The plot of the movie never explained the reason's for Alita's large eyes, but I got over it with the strikingly realistic and tack sharp close ups of her emoting and talking. I could watch that for quite a long time but wide shots and master shots had her eyes changing size with odd flat angles as if someone couldn't draw eyes in a quarter angle view of a person's face.

I soon got over the distraction caused by the large eyes.

The plot was just too convoluted to keep up with and lost credibility with me. There were so many contradictions underpinning the main premise on its surface was a bit poetic and Orwellian. I couldn't get over the idea that Alita was the most advanced technology of her time that was destroyed 300 years ago because it could give people ideas and a means to take over society, but for some reason all Alita can do is fight cyborgs that seem to be far more advanced than her.

Also she's so innocent and caring as a teenager but can kill and destroy without thought or feelings. Why should I care about her and even the world she now occupies? It seems hopelessly dystopian.

The color was off as well but it might be from watching on a Sony 4K digital projector that needed calibrating where somewhat thick red halos along edges of skin back lit and the letterbox top next to the overscan had a thick red bar and the bottom a cyan bar as if RGB channels were shifted. It made all the color look like a Brothers Hildebrandt illustration and was a distraction.

It's an OK movie, but I don't think it deserves a sequel unless teenage girls are the main draw.

This is most likely the technology they used to get the life like look in Alita's eyes...

 

Japan seems to prefer large eyes going back to Gigantor 50 years ago, I think it’s designed to sell franchise to western country’s.

 

More ?
No lookee like.

 

Nope.

 

Did you come up with that response on your own or did you have help?

What kind of answer is that? Sour grapes?

 

I just did a spittake all over my computer, laughing.

Meanwhile, there's differences of opinion with the industry trades:

Box Office: Will China Help Save 'Alita: Battle Angel'?

Why Alita: Battle Angel DIDN’T Bomb At The Box Office

 

Holy walk back, Batman!

 

This quote from Vidiot's link to the China premiere made me wonder why there wasn't any prominent Asian actors in Alita....

What's up with that?

 

Wow, what a bad movie. It was actually pretty engaging up to the point where she got her new body, but then it totally went off the rails. Don't get me started about all of the plot holes and jumps in logic. Saw it at a 4K IMAX theater, so the image was incredible, but on the flip side the sound was turned up to 11, so by the end you just felt pummeled, both by the sonics and the bad plot. When it got to the end we all looked at each other and said, That's it?

John K.

 

Little Audrey is the reason ...Japan became enamored with her cartoons/comic books ( a lot of this material was black market , at the time )

 

Then all the characters in Alita should have large eyes as a design motif reflecting the overall look of Manga.

Besides I was told either several pages up or in another thread on Movie Hits and Bombs of 2019 that it would be revealed in the plot of the movie why Alita's eyes are large compared to other cyborgs and human characters. Clearly not even one character in the movie noticed or questioned Alita about her eyes, nor was it explained by Ido who brought her back to life.

 

I don't care about cyborg "girl power" in space ….. China will probably not save this dreck ..... now that comment about that chinese movie The Wandering Earth makes me curious about that movie …...

 

I forgot to mention that it was a 7 pm showing on Thursday night of school vacation week, and the theater wasn’t even a quarter full.

John K