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Battle Angel Alita

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(ENG/ESP) A Mangaka Diary #35 “Alita from the Comic Perspective –/ Diario de una Mangaka #35 – “Alita Desde el Punto de vista del Comic.@reenave814d
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4 more reviews

  1. ›Gunnm - Battle Angel Alita cap 2 latiño@lemwong2385d
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  2. ›Gunnm - Battle Angel Alita cap 1 latiño@lemwong2388d
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  3. ›A Geeky Dad's Movie Guide to Alita: Battle Angel (2019)@hanshotfirst2685d

    Do not bother seeing this movie. It was a colossal disappointment and utter waste of my time.


    *Wow! This looks like a great video game! Wait. It's a movie? Never mind.*

    Before I attempt to explain why, I feel it is important to note that I have not read any of the Manga (Japanese comic books) and knew nothing about the characters and story before seeing a preview for this movie over six months ago. Perhaps it will appeal to an audience who fully understands the story.

    Speaking of previews, here's a big shout out to my son for being smarter than his old man. When we first saw the preview, I excitedly turned to Timmy, grabbed his arm, and said, 'We have to see that!" He shrugged and said, "I don't know dad. Maybe." Then every subsequent time we saw a preview, I continued to ask, "Are you sure you don't want to see this?"

    He was indeed sure... and he was completely right. I wish I would have listened to him and saved the $10 and two hours of my life. Thinking I was smarter than my teenage son, I went to see this movie by myself. Big mistake. Even seeing it in a fancy Dolby theater could not make this movie worth my time.

    For the uninitiated, many video games have "cutscenes". Cutscenes are mini-movies that pop up at different times during the game (usually before or after an action packed mission) to help tell the story behind the game you are playing. Although some are very deep and detailed, there is no way I would sit down and watch a series of video game cutscenes spliced together. That is of course unless someone compiled these cutscenes and packaged them as a movie called Alita: Battle Angel.


    A random example of a cutscene. Pretty cool for 2 minutes... not 120.


    If that were to happen, I would see it... and then promptly be really pissed that Hollywood tricked me into watching them. That is basically what this movie was. It was a disjointed and hard to follow series of spliced together scenes that made little sense and provided very few thrills.

    Don't get me wrong, the animation for this film is spectacular. But that is part of the problem. The filmmakers decided to make Alita look animated while most of the other characters were real. It felt like a more violent version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit than a real sci-fi action movie. Because she looked so cartoonish, I could never really get into any of the fight scenes. Once again, it was like watching someone play a really advanced version of Streetfighter. Although it looked cool, the fact that it was so unrealistic made it quite boring to me. For some reason, watching Youtube videos of other people playing a video game is very popular with teenagers today. Perhaps that is the audience the producers were going for. But it definitely was not me or the friends I envision when I write these reviews.


    *Now this is how you mix animation and reality.*

    Another huge problem was that the movie wasn't even quite bad enough for me to have any fun ranting about it. It stirred no passion in me in either direction. It is an incomplete movie that is simply... "meh". I wish I could rant about the fact that I had no clue why any character was behaving the way he/she/it was, but I simply don't care. It seems silly to get emotionally caught up in video game cutscenes.

    My anger has little to do with the movie and much to do with the way it was advertised. This movie should have been a series of shorts on Youtube or the cutscenes for a sensational video game. Advertised as an action movie focusing on melee battles, it was more about a futuristic and incredibly brutal sport played on roller skates called Rollerball*... oops I mean Motorball.


    *This game has the best graphics! Oh yeah. Forgot about that whole movie thing again.*

    Another thing that would normally illicit an irrationally emotional rant from me is the fact that the movie has no ending. I'm actually quite shocked that the creators did not end with a cheesy black screen filled with the words "... to be continued". It was terrible. And yet, I did not care at all. There is no way I would see a sequel to this and I did not care how this one ended. In my mind, it ends with some Youtuber finishing the final mission after this last cutscene, taking pictures of the after the game credits to add to his Instagram story, and then celebrating with some Hotpockets that his mom made him.

    Geeky Dad's Movie Guide

    I wish I were asleep instead of watching this. I didn't care enough to put the effort into rolling my eyes. I should have left and looked at my phone. My kids were smarter than me and did not attend. There is no reason for a person who has not read the Manga to see this (perhaps those who already know the story could enjoy it... or maybe it just universally sucks).

    *My apologies to Rollerball for including you in a review of a terrible movie that ripped off your sport. If you have not seen the 1975 version of Rollerball starring James Caan, watch that instead of this video game cutscene nonsense.


    *Images* [1](https://cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Alita-intl-poster-600x889.jpg), [2](https://www.thefocuspull.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/roger-rabbit1.jpg), [3](https://estrenosdecine.eu/images/imagen%20trailers/2019/28-1/Escena-carrera-motorball-alita-G.jpg)
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  4. ›Manga Review: Battle Angel Alita@thatanimesnob3053d

    Battle Angel Alita is the best manga I have read in my life (and I have read a lot). It has an amazing steampunk atmosphere, the artwork is very detailed, the attention to technology and the terminology they are using gives them an extra touch of realism, and the action scenes are epic and brutal.

    Of course all that are just surface elements any shonentard could say to make even Black Clover to sound like a masterpiece, so let’s move to more substantial things. The protagonist is for me, by far the best female character in fiction. She is not defined by her gender or her sexuality, which is the case with almost every female character nowadays. She has a personality of her own, she is proactive, she is not dependent on men for feeling happy or secure, and above all, she constantly moves forward seeking more about who she is and what she wants in life.

    On a superficial level, the story is like a fighting shonen. Progressively stronger enemies appear, the protagonist is an underdog with amnesia that needs to power up and beat them for protecting her loved ones and eventually the world, before it’s revealed she was never an underdog and was special all along. The huge difference (which is also what makes it a seinen by the way) is how every conflict is mostly internal instead of external. Every challenge she faces is always related to how she thinks and feels; it’s not some generic one-dimensional villain who wants to take over the world for the heck of it. Overcoming a challenge is never about punching the bad guy harder than before; it’s about facing your fears and doubts. Hear that, D.Gray Man, you piece of shit?

    Another great thing about it is how it’s an actual subversion of typical superhero and fighting shonen stories. The term has lost its meaning these days, since people are using it for everything, but this manga is the purest form of it. Every arc starts in a cheesy way, it has a twist that flips around everything you assumed about it, it ends in a way that feels cathartic, and leads to legit character development. It’s not a satire that treats twists as a joke (One Punch Man), it’s not trying to be different for the sake of being different without actually doing something with it (The Force Awakens), and it definitely gives you much more than what you initially expected out of the premise (Black Clover).

    And I have to point out how it has a great plot progression with reasonable threat escalation and never collapses because of power creep. Getting stronger does not mean something superficial such as your hair having a different color, or your aura is bigger (Dragonball Super). The conflicts escalate in volume as they do in importance, beginning from backstreet psychotic killers and go all the way up to demigods that control the solar system. Their motives are not the same generic rule or kill everything, regardless of how strong they are.

    The more influence someone has because of his abilities, drastically changes his responsibilities and motives, which is why the petty street thug does not behave or think the same way as a demigod, so even the psychological conflicts gradually change from petty ones to bigger than life cosmological debates. And this is something I keep hearing a lot of people disliking about later arcs, especially in the Last Order sequel. A big part of the story is no longer about Alita, it’s about the world around Alita, which makes her feel distant and less relatable because of it. Even though that is the whole point of her plot progression; gradually becoming less selfish and more interested in existentialism issues that reach a cosmic level.

    Many complaints have also been said about the fighting tournament that takes place in Last Order. A huge part of it shows us what the other characters are doing instead of focusing on Alita all the time. Which is a completely dumb thing to say since that is exactly what made The Zenith of Things the best fighting tournament in fiction. In comparison to the Tournament of Power in Dragonball, which was just Goku and Vegeta steamrolling dozens of nobodies, and the sports festival of My Hero Academia, which was just a few boys screaming at each other with no tension whatsoever, ZOTT in comparison is a masterpiece. It bothers to flesh out most of the contestants, while offering world building at the same time, by showing us all the other places Alita never went to, and yet is supposed to be affecting with her ever-growing powers. Entire universes have been wiped out in Dragonball Super and you don’t give a shit about them because you know nothing about them. How is this better to what ZOTT is doing, you fools? You treat the manga as a fighting shonen and just want to see Alita as a waifu that steamrolls everyone. You are missing the big picture.

    In conclusion, Battle Angel Alita is the best manga ever made, and retains its consistency throughout its duration. It was not ruined like Berserk after the Eclipse, it did not lose its plot density like Eden is an Endless World, and it did not mutate from a Parasyte imitation to flower symbolism about one-dimensional rapists (Tokyo Ghoul). As for the complaints about the bug eyes Alita has in the upcoming live action movie, Cameron, you fucking idiot, every child-like character looked like that in the manga because of the artstyle. You killed its appeal a year before the movie is out and you will only manage to make people to read the manga. Which is better than nothing I guess. At least this way a lot of people will realize what trash fighting shonen have become nowadays. Fuck modern, Alita is almost 30 years old by now and it wins. As all retro always does.

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