Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Her Legend Begins.
I think the biggest fault of tonight’s movie is they missed the perfect opportunity to both reference a previous Cameron movie while also being self-standing with a tagline like “She’s state of the bad ass art.” Now, a bit of preamble - I got this on 4k, but also as the combo-pack with 3D. The intent was to start off with the 3D version, which comes highly recommended by one of my friends - but the world has a way of making things… complicated. None of the glasses were charged, in the short run I’m not even positive any of them are compliant with the projector, the computer might not be doing 3D as it used to, and the 3D bluray player I own isn’t hooked up to the projector and would take all manner of re-jigging cables to do so. I could have even tried it in VR, but there doesn’t seem to exist a program that allows both VR and proper 3D viewing straight from the disc, so I’d need to rip a movie that I had just received and push back the time it took to get to the review before I even hit the wall of “don’t have the software to rip Bluray discs.” What this amounts to is that you might be able expect me to either addend the end of this review later on when I get the 3D back in fighting spirits, or perhaps just spin that portion off into a QF review. For now, we rip that 4k image wide open and get our robot-arms ready for maximum high five, tonight is Alita: Battle Angel.
I think that intro might be the longest one yet. Anyways, this is another one of those scenarios where the movie is birthed of a different beast - a manga, an anime, the beautiful strokes of Japan entertainment so popular with so many. I know of these things, specifically I can recall to you a picture I once saw of a bad looking anime chick with a giant butterfly knife scaled up to great sword (or perhaps Spear) proportions with some battle-style football eye paint throwing down. Now the punchline - and that’s it! To no ones surprise, I have no history with the source material, so outside of just reiterating what I may have heard passed down by some reviewer or fan who has, comparisons on adaptation levels are worthless coming from me. That said, it is my understanding that some of the shots might have well been - at least compositionly - lifted straight out of the source. Kudos for that, and for the gall to make any changes they actually wanted to and weren’t just forced to. From the perspective of a person who doesn’t know anything about the source, the movie is easily followed with just a few lines of scrawl at the front end, and the obligatory exposition lines that happen throughout the movie. Yeah, they are there in a good number of scenes, largely played off in the “character X has amnesia and needs world elements explained to them!” trope of the universe - maybe it’ll annoy you, for me it didn’t do so here as it didn’t feel too much like it interrupted flow.
And it flowed pretty well. You get a good mix of action, tensions, and world building and emotional scenes here. The start can be a bit slow until the first action scene if that’s what someone is longing for, but the character investments are needed almost more so to help build out the world and get you up to speed without being nothing but an exposition movie. The plot in turn feels a little basic - perhaps due to the amnesia elements. We have a story, and one could argue that it’s the more interesting one (especially from an action hungry perspective) that crops up as the character has flashbacks, that ties into the past. We also have the current story, which is a bit of the “grass is greener” outlook on life with the downtrodden wanting to be in the uplifted rich kids world, and usually getting rather abused because of it. There is mystery at the end of that story, but it’s not going to get answered here, much like most the elaborate depths of the flashbacks won’t. We also get a love story in there, and a bit of a monster hunter vibe on the sidelines that ties more into characters and morals than it is necessarily it’s own story. There’s a decent amount there - but it can’t help but also feel rather mundane a lot of the time, as nowadays we’ve already seen a lot of the story beats in many other movies. At it’s best it works at building the world and making you want to learn more, at it’s worst your telling the actors on screen how it’s going to play out before they do it like Sherlock-Vision was your idea over the top of your brew.
For the story to work it needs some decent sets and actors to play it out. Even Lord of the Rings could be boring as heck if the entire thing was spread in narration by Mister Monotone and the Asylum crew. The actors do a pretty decent job. Stand outs serve as really just being that in here - it doesn’t necessarily feel like a collection of the best actors, rather a gathering of competent enough actors who occasionally stand out even if you aren’t sure it’s for the intended reason. The way the good Doctor talks, for example, struck me as entertaining for some reason, but some might find it rather cheesy. Plenty of side characters crop up and get to be rather one-note, seemingly just doing what they need to do for the plot before being ejected by fist or the story’s absent desire for them. The main two young pups of the flick do a good job playing off each other though, even if at times the lines could feel perhaps a bit weird when delivered. Might be intentional, I’m not really positive it isn’t. It’s good enough to keep you sold on reactions however, and it extends past lines and into the actual character actions. If there was any one disconnect when it came to it for me, it’d be the use of a certain rocket-powered hammer that comes up, feeling incredibly slow for something that has a rocket fire coming out the back. Kind of makes me think of that first ever lightsaber battle, where it looked like the old folks home decided to have a sword fight between the eldest two members.
The hero.
Of course, most people would be keen to point out one aspect of a single character that happens to rub them the wrong way. Yep, Alita has some big ‘ole anime eyes! I’m going to be entirely honest here, because that’s what I do - they didn’t bother me. Sometimes I’d notice it, but most the time it really just did what I feel like the intended purpose of large anime eyes is in the first place - it lets it feel like more emotions are coming through with less expression. You know, the whole “eyes are the gateway to the soul” nonsense. If anything, some of the expressions she makes with her mouth threw me off more than the oversized eyes - but despite not being in with the source material, I have been an ingestor of anime media for years, so that might just be a tolerance level that’s been built up from consumption over the average viewer. In that same note of details however, I have to say that watching this thing in 4k wasn’t the worst option I could go with. The combo of it with the projector really let me get a good feel for what the intended desire of 4k was - the amount of details crammed into some of the shots and models are ridiculous. Have you ever looked at some of those fantasy swords or old western guns and just been astounded at how much detail the metal workers and smiths could fit in? This movie is like that. I won’t mind coming back (hopefully) to watch it in 3D later because I’m not sure how much of the movie I didn’t even properly catch because I was too busy being dumbfounded by all the intricate carvings and engravings on the mechanical parts or random visual elements flapping about in the backgrounds. Yeah, the picture retains that 4k level of clarity that I originally really thought was the benefit of the format until now, but after this I can’t even imagine how much effort must have gone into making the ornate things look so ornate and not letting the world feel lacking in comparison.
Of course, a lot of that is effects work - robot models and whatnot. The part that I like the most about it however, is that a lot of it looks so good you would buy that it’s actually a WETA-styled suit on the actor opposed to a model. It looks darn good, and I can’t stress that enough. Yes, sometimes you still get that video game character trying to but in on the action, but compared to some of the other effects driven movies out there I can’t help but be impressed with whats in this. Of course, we also get some fun weapons - rocket hammers and monofilament blades being the easy peasy ones to eye-catch - but when people are walking around in literal machine bodies, it’s pretty obvious that some are going to be packing some weaponry build right in. A choice was made in the setting to eliminate guns from the common-folks hands, meaning plenty of showy fights and some martial arts type moments. Robots and people getting cut up, characters getting robotic replacements while carrying on conversations, or even just little details like a change of eye color when someone has assumed control - it’s all pretty dang good looking. Some of it certainly looks CG, but honestly even then it still looks good regardless. I’m happy I watched this if for nothing but the effects - but I haven’t really complained about much else at this point either.
Audio does it’s job, and surprisingly none of it has stuck around with me. Perhaps one cheesy line of dialogue, or the way a character delivered something, but when it comes to music it’s surprisingly or not a blank slate up in my head. It probably did a wonderful job of tiding up the scenes and rounding them out with some extra energy and emotional punch - but be it being too fatigued by my eyes soaking everything in or just not paying enough attention, it’s all just slipped right on out of my mind like sliding in to a new robotic body. I’d argue that the poor little doggy sticks around more than most the audio - but the ride is still good without it necessarily overpowering the entire movie to the point that the only recognizable trait is the soundtrack. If the songs don’t pop up and have you yelling “shut up!” at it, then it can’t be that bad. The ending, well, it’s gonna give you some sequel bait at the end - to which I’m not necessarily opposed to, unless we never end up actually getting it since it’s arguably the movie I’d rather see despite having needed this first one to get me set in my understanding of the universe and why things are what they are.
Probably doesn’t translate in the picture, but in 4k the details are absurd.
This movie is a firecracker. It’s lighting up the sky with an occasional thunderous pop as you eyes dilate in wonder and excitement. The details and quality of the visual side of things crack your eyes wide open. leaving your saucers trying to take it all in an inevitably failing when they get focused on one thing instead of the whole. I could see the movie being great for extra views because of that - even if I’d also argue that perhaps the story side won’t contribute as much enjoyment to the extra watching. It’s a solid movie, for that I have no doubt, and I’m sure a rather wide swath of folks could watch it and enjoy it, even if only for a single time. It has some violence in it, and maybe some of the acting isn’t award winning, but the pace is good enough and the visuals kick it up a notch. I can’t speak for the 3D yet - but hopefully at some point I will - but at the very least it wouldn’t hurt you to find the biggest screen you can and check it out in 4k, because your eyes will thank you.