I knew Alita:Battle Angel was based on a manga before I watched it, but I hadn't read it. I was skeptical going in, because it's difficult to translate well something as detailed and long as mangas can be into a movie. I have to say that the movie was really captivating and it made want to read the manga.
The plot was a bit cheesy. While the premise was pretty novel (at least for me), the development of the story was kinda predictable. That's excusable considering it is, in a sense, an "origin story", but, still, it felt like something already seen. The tone of the whole thing was pretty light, although the fight scenes were a bit more gritty. And that scene with the brain, wow. That was out of nowhere, and dark . I hope the eventual sequels lean more into a dark, mature and even gruesome (to an extent) tone.
The casting was pretty great. Rosa Salazar's performance as Alita was incredible, the viewer is really able to empathize with her character. I don't think I have to say anything about Christoph Waltz, that man is a legend. I also enjoyed Mahershala Ali, I wish his character could have had more screentime. Same for Jennifer Connelly. Only exception would be Keenan Johnson, who plays Hugo. I don't think it's the actor fault, but his character was really out of place. I think part of it was miscasting, but Hugo wasn't developed properly as a character. I think either less or more time would have helped. As it is now, you don't really care for him as much as the movie wants you to. I'll only say that seeing him die twice was quite satisfying.
The CGI and world building were marvelous. The classic cyberpunk look, with amazing technology like cyborgs mixed in with poverty is always interesting to me. With a great company like Weta supervising the visual effects the results are what you would expect. The cyborgs feel real and like there is a connection between their cybernetic bodies and their human mind. The main character, Alita, is completely CGI; and yet it feels perfectly natural and connected to the environment. I thought the eyes looked weird at first, but in the end I appreciated the uniqueness and emotiveness it brought to her face. Overall, one of the best movie for what regards visual effects. With the exception of two scenes: the one underwater (which, to my understanding, is one of the most difficult things to properly simulate) and the scene where Hugo falls off. The latter in particular felt like it was from the 90s, no idea how it made it into an otherwise gorgeous movie.
In the end, it's a movie I would recommend. If you like action and cyberpunk and can tolerate a bit of cheesiness, you would probably enjoy this movie. If not, I think the photo-real effects might be another good reason.
Review by Enrico CamillieriBlockedParent2020-04-21T14:42:34Z
I knew Alita:Battle Angel was based on a manga before I watched it, but I hadn't read it. I was skeptical going in, because it's difficult to translate well something as detailed and long as mangas can be into a movie. I have to say that the movie was really captivating and it made want to read the manga.
The plot was a bit cheesy. While the premise was pretty novel (at least for me), the development of the story was kinda predictable. That's excusable considering it is, in a sense, an "origin story", but, still, it felt like something already seen. The tone of the whole thing was pretty light, although the fight scenes were a bit more gritty. And that scene with the brain, wow. That was out of nowhere, and dark . I hope the eventual sequels lean more into a dark, mature and even gruesome (to an extent) tone.
The casting was pretty great. Rosa Salazar's performance as Alita was incredible, the viewer is really able to empathize with her character. I don't think I have to say anything about Christoph Waltz, that man is a legend. I also enjoyed Mahershala Ali, I wish his character could have had more screentime. Same for Jennifer Connelly.
Only exception would be Keenan Johnson, who plays Hugo. I don't think it's the actor fault, but his character was really out of place. I think part of it was miscasting, but Hugo wasn't developed properly as a character. I think either less or more time would have helped. As it is now, you don't really care for him as much as the movie wants you to. I'll only say that seeing him die twice was quite satisfying.
The CGI and world building were marvelous. The classic cyberpunk look, with amazing technology like cyborgs mixed in with poverty is always interesting to me. With a great company like Weta supervising the visual effects the results are what you would expect. The cyborgs feel real and like there is a connection between their cybernetic bodies and their human mind. The main character, Alita, is completely CGI; and yet it feels perfectly natural and connected to the environment. I thought the eyes looked weird at first, but in the end I appreciated the uniqueness and emotiveness it brought to her face.
Overall, one of the best movie for what regards visual effects. With the exception of two scenes: the one underwater (which, to my understanding, is one of the most difficult things to properly simulate) and the scene where Hugo falls off. The latter in particular felt like it was from the 90s, no idea how it made it into an otherwise gorgeous movie.
In the end, it's a movie I would recommend. If you like action and cyberpunk and can tolerate a bit of cheesiness, you would probably enjoy this movie. If not, I think the photo-real effects might be another good reason.
8/10