"Alita" is a demo reel for mo-cap (motion capture) that misses its every opportunity to be interesting.
The movie is based on a manga of the same name, one I did a quick read about on Wikipedia. Basically, it is about a cyborg in the 26th century with amnesia and a body of recycled parts who uses her one memory of being a skilled martial artist to work as a bounty hunter and plays sports in her spare time.
It worried me because the manga seemed to be entirely character driven and I had a hunch that the characters would not have the charisma they needed. I was right.
Alita is nothing more than an inconsistently written model. In the beginning, she's presented as the cute and innocent anime girl trope. Then on the flip of a dime, she's edgy and rebellious. There is almost no transition. She does what the plot demands and I didn't believe in any of the decisions she made.
I didn't even find her fight scenes believable. She's pretty but her physics are atrocious. The way Alita moves compared to the actors is so uncanny it takes you out of the experience. She's a machine of around 200 lbs and she moves like a helium balloon.
The supporting characters are bland and forgettable, to the point I can hardly remember their names and the villains were laughable Spy Kids rejects.
But my main problem with Alita as a character is that she makes for a terrible action hero. Despite her distracting weightlessness, her actions scenes were a lot of fun to watch but at the same time, I never feared for her character. It was established very early on that she's basically indestructible and that is the perfect recipe for a boring protagonist. Then, the one battle that had some real stakes to it and could possibly result in failure is the one you don't get to see.
This movie isn't all bad. There's amazing artwork, disturbing imagery, and genuinely funny lines and scenes. It is what's odd about the film. There's so much going for it and it does nothing.
What I mean by this is that it has a lot of interesting ideas that aren't touched on. For example, there's an establishment that guns in this century are outlawed. So I figured the majority of the sparring would be medieval like, but with robots. Nope! There's only two swords throughout this 2 hour long feature.
Another example is how it reminded my fiance of an 80's action film. It doesn't do anything an 80s action film would do, not even a final kick a** battle!
I would mention more but I don't want to go into spoiler territory and I'll be talking about this more on my youtube channel (Ami Scythe) in May.
Overall, I think it's okay. There's very little I enjoyed and I don't think the fun bits of it are worth the money, but strangely, I wouldn't recommend not seeing it. Hopefully it shows up on Netflix.
The movie is based on a manga of the same name, one I did a quick read about on Wikipedia. Basically, it is about a cyborg in the 26th century with amnesia and a body of recycled parts who uses her one memory of being a skilled martial artist to work as a bounty hunter and plays sports in her spare time.
It worried me because the manga seemed to be entirely character driven and I had a hunch that the characters would not have the charisma they needed. I was right.
Alita is nothing more than an inconsistently written model. In the beginning, she's presented as the cute and innocent anime girl trope. Then on the flip of a dime, she's edgy and rebellious. There is almost no transition. She does what the plot demands and I didn't believe in any of the decisions she made.
I didn't even find her fight scenes believable. She's pretty but her physics are atrocious. The way Alita moves compared to the actors is so uncanny it takes you out of the experience. She's a machine of around 200 lbs and she moves like a helium balloon.
The supporting characters are bland and forgettable, to the point I can hardly remember their names and the villains were laughable Spy Kids rejects.
But my main problem with Alita as a character is that she makes for a terrible action hero. Despite her distracting weightlessness, her actions scenes were a lot of fun to watch but at the same time, I never feared for her character. It was established very early on that she's basically indestructible and that is the perfect recipe for a boring protagonist. Then, the one battle that had some real stakes to it and could possibly result in failure is the one you don't get to see.
This movie isn't all bad. There's amazing artwork, disturbing imagery, and genuinely funny lines and scenes. It is what's odd about the film. There's so much going for it and it does nothing.
What I mean by this is that it has a lot of interesting ideas that aren't touched on. For example, there's an establishment that guns in this century are outlawed. So I figured the majority of the sparring would be medieval like, but with robots. Nope! There's only two swords throughout this 2 hour long feature.
Another example is how it reminded my fiance of an 80's action film. It doesn't do anything an 80s action film would do, not even a final kick a** battle!
I would mention more but I don't want to go into spoiler territory and I'll be talking about this more on my youtube channel (Ami Scythe) in May.
Overall, I think it's okay. There's very little I enjoyed and I don't think the fun bits of it are worth the money, but strangely, I wouldn't recommend not seeing it. Hopefully it shows up on Netflix.
Last edited by Ami-Scythe; 03-13-19 at 06:16 PM.