Alita: Battle Angel

I wrote this review when the movie was still on the theatres, but my brother didn't saw it so I decided to wait until he watch it and see what did he think.

Yes is a shit ton of time after the movie left the theatres but, let's be realistic, is a long review and you were not going to read it anyway.

Alita: Battle Angel

“How to make a good move and a bad adaptation at the same time”

This movie is hard to review for me, why? Because this is my all-time favorite Manga, directed for one of my favorite directors, adapted (in part) by other of my favorite directors. Luckily for you, I’m professional enough and mature enough to make a partition on my mind and divide both, movie and adaptation.

Let’s start with the movie as itself:

This movie to me story wise reaches as far as mediocre, because it hits so many classic clichés and some new ones that gets way too predictable. There is a big bad guy, there is crime, everything has corruption, controlled by the BBG previously mentioned, the savior will be great at everything and with ancient super power, there a super weapon that only the hero can use, ETC. You get my drift.

In the story we see Alita being the best at everything she decides to do, no matter how little she knows of the world she already can do it and be the best. But I’m getting ahead of time, let’s go with the story in structure.

Is well structured, things happen when you feel is natural, almost all the time, a little accelerated in parts, but let’s be honest the mashed together 3 story arcs in a 2 hours movie, and because of that we don’t have time to see what happens and we are told every detail to get into the movie, thing that I don’t appreciate because I will not care for who you told me to care if I don’t see a reason why. One good thing is that they avoided do what is turning very common this days, which is to present a character and kill it immediately, like in Solo and the train heist, I didn’t care for the guy why should I care for the action scene? If all die, would I get a better gang? Any way they don’t do it here but they actually tell you what is good, what is bad, and even how deep a character feels for the other, so you get the deep scenes further on. But in some cases I like mediocre predictable movies, and this was the case, yes I saw the ending from miles away, yes I knew which parts will be removed, because certain parts were learning and you super hero all powerful should not need to learn, should only go out and kick ass.

Visually the movie is great, and in some parts it recreates frames from the manga to the most minimal detail, but even so, because everything is accelerated you have very little time to rejoice in the visuals, because you have to run to the next scene, is like one of those trips to Europe of 30 cities in 4 days, yes you have memories of amazing views but also you want it to stay for longer. There are a lot of details that give more colour to the world where everything is going on, incidental characters, costume design, but then again no enough time to appreciate it. Even the movie has a lot of CGI it looks way better than Aquaman.

The story has certain inconsistencies, like having a super advanced robotics lab, but needing to steal pieces of some guy because… I don’t know, they can’t build them… with all the money and resources from the guy who runs the world, I think? I mean, it’s moronic to certain points just to keep with certain points that held the story parallel to the manga

So visually is great, story wise is mediocre at best, but that is what a movie needs to be awesome this days, right?

Well then, now what about if I tell you that, the adaptation has nothing on the source material?

Well I learned that an adaptation could have nothing to do with the original material except for the idea and the intention, and this movie tries to do the same story but with a different idea and different intention. What do I mean?

Well let’s see that means that you can set the movie in a different time, but remain the personalities of the characters, there true core and motivation, and will still feel like the same story. Change characters, locations, order of events and will still feel the same. Here they leave the husk of the story and change their inner self, yes they left some key points to hold the story together but those are only pins and duct tape, the real cohesion is no longer there. And I will tell you.

And yes, from here on might be spoilers so, you have been warned.

Battle Angel was the first manga I read, that was when I was in middle school, so way back. And I loved it, that dystopia and people scratching in the garbage to survive, how that little girl first wants to just know the world and see the world is not as happy as Ido wanted to show her. How there is no clear enemy only difficulties along the road to find herself, how even going through hell and back her heart remains willing to love someone. Here we got almost a Mary Sue that almost the moment she wakes up she wants to fight for justice, what the hell is that? Not even Robocop got to that point that fast, and it was in his directives.

I know a praised the visuals before, but that is a big problem for the adaptation, and even they recreated to an alarming level of detail certain panels of the manga, they still didn’t catch it the city is supposed to be old, grime, dust, junk, rust and dirt all over. This manga characteristic to have a lot of body horror and deformities has a clean cut movie, even the back alleys look clean, what is this? Canada? It needed more personality, I mean it looks like a nice city in Mexico, more than a dystopian future, which looks like a bad Mexican neighbourhood.

So the way to put it will be fair and simple, let’s go with the characters.

Nova, this was the worst they could do to an amazing character, in the manga, Nova is not good nor bad, he is the embodiment of scientific curiosity, why nova do stuff? Because he wants to learn, he wants to see what happens if, he does his research, works the theory all together and then goes to try it, he doesn’t want to control the world, or rule it, he wants to see what’s beyond of the known world, and that’s it, well also eat flan, but who doesn’t? Here Nova is the big bad evil that runs the show, controls the mafia, motor ball, but I suppose he doesn’t control the chains manufacturers, that’s why he has to steal chains, see? That is call a call back. So you lose a great character to have a cardboard cut of a classic Mr. Evil who wants to… what ever

Hugo, being a charming, responsible and caring boyfriend did very little for his character or anyone else, the original character is a jerk, some asshole that breaks Alita’s heart more than once, and that was the point, she falls for him and he is a scumbag. In the movie he is the hooker with the heart of gold, he steals pieces of cyborgs, but does not kill them, he has a code and respect everyone to accomplish his dream of a better life. That does nothing is just some goodie two shoes bending a little the rules, like someone who steal bread because is hungry. The original one steals parts, but biological parts, he steal spines because those you can’t recreate, is a murderer that only cares for himself, for him cyborgs are less than humans and only sees Alita as some girl that is always behind him and later on as his meal ticket. And when he gets turned into a cyborg he thinks his life is over, so he tries his last “Hail Mary” dies there, still not caring for Alita or anyone else.

Ido is just exposition, he is there to explain the world and they slapped on him a sob story to finish him before lunch. That and also he is a facilitator, sorry sir, I don’t have the parts you need to work, but I have two full bodies for Alita and her boyfriend, give me a break.

MotorBall here is over played and under played at the same time, they use it to give reason to do stuff, but seriously, if a MotorBall player has a weapon that means that is commercial grade, you might be even able to get it in the junkyard. So that makes no sense when they have Nova on their side, why the need for stealing when they have way more advanced tech. In the Manga MotorBall is a way for Alita to find herself, be away from Ido who always tried to protect her, there is also a phrase she said to him that I thought they would use in the movie which is “I’m not a little girl that you can dress and will just be pretty”. MotorBall is only a sport, and she is on the 3rd league, that will be something like the minors for all American friends that doesn’t know that most sports you start on a lower league/division and earn your way up. And one thing it bothered me was the champ, Jashugan, this guy is a God in MotorBall in the Manga, here is just some guy who is kind of good at it, he is so good that when he plays he removes one of his arms as a handicap just to give the others a chance, when he gets his duel against Alita he tells her to get a group of 5, so 4 other player to consider it an even match, and even so he pulverizes all of them, even Alita. 

 

A full team against the Champ

The Wiki say that he lost but shit, look at it, in the final panel he puts his fist through her stomach. That is the ending of that arch, she lost and he became a legend, the undefeated God.

 

Yes, she looks like a winner there

 
I was not going to say anything but… Alita, in the movie she is from start the hero you expect, she is pure and badass, the nice little girl who packs a heavy punch (I think I worked with someone like that :P ) and wants answers and save the world, and that makes her boring, I’m good so I have my mind set and I’ll do everything right. Manga Alita is very complex, yes start naïve but then grows, makes mistakes, learn from it, learn from everyone, the Panzer Kunst is not perfect and she learns ways to improve every time, but also she is temperamental, short fuse and stubborn, and we love her for all that she is (well I love her) the new one is just some generic heroine, BORING! 

 

The worst part of Alita's movie is that we will never have a movie with Elf and Zwölf.
Eh? Oh yes, Sechs too will be missed.
But for how the managed adapting characters I think is for the best.

There are way more things that the original story makes it more engaging, more appealing.

Then again the movie is nice to watch and the story is OK so it will be a solid 3 stars out of 5 as a whole, 4 stars as a movie, 2 stars as adaptation, so let’s meet up in the middle.

*** 3 stars, watch it, don’t think too much about it.