Benz Eye View: Alita: Battle Angel

Alita: Battle Angel

Pros: 

1.) Alita and Dr. Dyson Ido have some good father-daughter chemistry.  While it is not really mind-blowing, I like how these two works well for each other since these two have some issues, especially Alita.  In fact, these two are the stand-out performances out of the other cast.  Whenever these two are together, it gives the movie a little more life.

2.) There are some awesome action scenes.  While it can be a little too fast at times, these scenes are heart-pumping and in certain cases, kind of brutal.  Considering the people that Alita are fighting against are usually cyborgs, it can be a little gruesome to see the human parts get crushed in these fights (or in one case, a guy gets part of his face sliced off).  It is fun to watch these action scenes, especially the Motorball sequence.

3.) The visuals look great.  With a few exceptions, the visuals look like they can rival Avengers: Infinity War.  Green screen looks top notch, and the CG cyborgs look pretty good.  The actors do not stand out in these special effects (or at least, it does not look bad), and it almost looks as good as Avatar‘s special effects…

 

Cons: 

1.) …There is one exception to the special effects: Alita herself.  More specifically, her eyes bother me.  While there are moments where it looks fine, other moments crosses the uncanny valley.

I get that they are trying to simulate the look from the manga, but it still looks odd.  

Those bothering moments are where she smiles and laughs; it looks off.  It makes it even worse when she is next to the other cyborgs who look more human-like than Alita.  When there is a line that describes Alita, “You are the most human person I have ever met,” I just snicker.

2.) The screenplay is unfocused.  I am not completely sure what the main plot is.  There is one plot that focuses on Alita’s amnesia, then another one about her joining the Hunter-Warriors, and then one of her joining Motorball in order to help Hugo.  It constantly changes from time to time, some of these get more time than others, and the movie becomes inconsistent on what story it wants to show.  Certain plot elements are brought up, but have little to no importance, or at least, is not brought up as much as what the movie had hoped.  If the movie had focused more on Alita’s search for her memories, then it would have been so much better.

3.) Alita has a romance with another character named Hugo, and this romantic chemistry is weak.  At best, this romance is cliched and formulaic.  I do like Alita, but Hugo is not as interesting.  In fact, when something happens to one of the characters, and they played it out with one character being distressed over another, I did not feel anything.  Probably would have been best if they developed Hugo and the romance more.

 

Overall: 

Based on a Japanese manga called Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnm in Japan), Alita: Battle Angel is one movie that I was excited to watch.  Alita does cross the uncanny valley at times, but I was still excited to see what this movie has in store.  Apparently, it has been through development hell for nineteen years, and it kind of shows.  The writing is not focused on what it wants, Alita has eyes problems at times, and her romance with Hugo is weak.  Not to say it is awful.  Alita and Dr. Ido have a good chemistry, there are some cool action scenes, and the visuals look great.  However, I was disappointed that the movie was not as good as I have hoped.  I am sure there are cyberpunk fans and average viewers who will like this movie (I am not sure about the Alita fans), but it ends up being all style and little substance that probably is need of more repairs.

6/10