Alita: Battle Angel (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Today on Film Friday, I take a look at the film, Alita: Battle Angel. Let’s Begin

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/Alita: Battle Angel is a 2019 cyberpunk action film from 20th Century Fox produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Adapted from the manga series Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro, it tells the story of Alita; a cyborg from the 26th Century who is on a journey of identity, love, and self-discovery after suffering from memory loss upon being put back together by Doctor Ido in Iron City. It’s also...really okay./

Now I’ll be the first to admit it; I never grew up with the manga like a lot of fans of this movie did.

However, when I saw the initial promotions and trailers for this movie, I was able to notice that things were edited in a way to initially tell me that this movie was supposed to be a big deal. More specifically, an adaptation of something popular

My initial conclusion considering who was producing it, what the main character looks like, and how many American adaptations had been released at the time was that it was an anime.

Upon miniscule research, I discovered that it was a manga series. A manga series that to my surprise, never really got a full-fledged anime adaptation in Japan like a lot of popular ones did; it only received like, 2 OVAs. Something I’ll touch on later in this video.

Only then did my research become more extensive and I found out that James Cameron had been wanting this series to be adapted to live-action for quite some time, with part of his TV show Dark Angel being inspired by Battle Angel Alita, and that he was planning on adapting it to live action film back in the early 2000’s before deciding to make the now Disney-owned Forgettable Fern Gully with Wolves movie instead.

But what initially made me disinterested in seeing this movie was finding out that in order for him to keep this on track with 20th Century Fox while also being allowed to work on Avatar 2, 3, and 4: The Quest for Peace at the same time,

he had to step away from the role of director -- staying on as just a producer -- and decided to entrust said director role...to Robert Rodriguez.

Who I still haven’t forgiven for making the Machete movies, and probably never will.

So with no real interest in seeing this movie when it came out and having no familiarity with the subject material its based on, while at the same time having a free movie ticket thanks to Atom, a desperate need to get out of the house, and there being no other movie that I wanted to see that was out during its opening weekend

I was like, “Sure. I’ll go see Alita. Maybe I’ll even review it for the channel if there’s enough for me to talk about!”

So I went, and like I said during my description, it was...okay

And considering what I’ve seen -- twice now to make sure my judgement wasn’t just in the moment -- coupled with what I found out, the fact that it was just okay was a bit disappointing. Because it could’ve been MORE than okay. It could’ve been GREATER than okay.

And a lot of factors as to why it ended up as “okay” as it did came to mind almost immediately after I left the movie theater, with a good handful of others after I re-watched it for this video.

Specifically due to two things; the overall characters and the actors ability to properly emote on camera, and how the story was crafted overall.

But before I dig into the problems I had with the film’s narrative and characterization, let me first give it some praise because it did a good amount of things right.

First of all, allowing us to experience the worldbuilding of Iron City and the sky city of Zalem through the eyes of Alita -- who because of her situation is just as clueless as we are for those of us who are unfamiliar with the manga and the animations -- was the perfect way of going about it.

/While I’m sure the same thing happened in the manga, the fact that we’re introduced to Alita as a character that has little to no memory of her past gives a perfect opportunity to allow exposition to the portion of the audience that’s unfamiliar with the world without it feeling forced or out of place. When we learn about the history of the universe, the sport Motorball, and the symbiotic one-sided relationship Iron City and Zalem have with each other, we learn it at the same time Alita learns it./

Not only does it make the experience feel more genuine and natural, but it also does a decent job at following the “show don’t tell” rule regularly associated with storytelling. I’ll explain more about that in November.

And I’m sure that this has a lot to do with James Cameron’s role as executive producer and whatnot, but this has to have been the most non Robert Rodriguez movie I’ve seen since I was introduced to him via Spy Kids

Oh, you’ve heard me right. It wasn’t From Dusk Till Dawn or his Mexico trilogy that was my first foray. It was Spy Kids, and to a certain extent, I’m actually kinda grateful for that.

/I say that because while it definitely wasn’t perfect, the use of CGI under his direction was a LOT better than I expected it to be. If anything, the IRL face to robot displacement only tended to throw me off a tad if the characters weren’t over exaggerated, but even that was minimal. For the most part, the set design of Iron City, the cyborg designs and the incorporation of cybernetic technology on regular people were handled pretty well and weren’t really distracting./

But I’ll tell you what WAS distracting, though. The overall energy from at least 4/5ths of the main cast of this movie, because that shit was all over the place!

So much, that it almost ruined how this movie set up its worldbuilding for me, because I was hoping for the same amount of proper setup and payoff. Especially considering who they got to play the parts for every role.

/Christoph Waltz’s Dr. Ido was the biggest perpetrator of this in my opinion. From finding Alita, fixing Alita, naming Alita, and protecting Alita, I expected him to have much more of a proper display of emotion and energy over the course of the movie. Especially considering the type of characters he’s used to playing and that we’ve seen him play in the past./

/But over the course of the movie -- especially in scenes and backstory where you would expect proper displays of emotional acting in order for the audience to resonate or understand the plight of the character -- he’s just so emotionally nonchalant even in the direst of circumstances. His concern for Alita’s safety always feels minimal even when there’s genuine effort, to the point where the only facial features he emotes over the course of the film are shock, mild irritation and meh. Even when the film wants us to care about the possibilities of him replacing Alita with his own daughter/

(“Our daughter is dead” scene)

Dr. Chiren, Dr. Ido’s ex-wife played by Jennifer Connely ALSO falls into this emotionless trap.

/We’re supposed to get this feeling that she’s willing to do anything it takes to get out of Iron City and back to Zalem at first while feeling conflict over the course of the movie until she makes that sacrifice to let Alita go when she has the opportunity to capture her. But we never see that conflict properly displayed by Connely during her time on screen, even during the scene in question when she helps Alita and Hugo in the church. Hell, we don’t even see her emote at all during the flashback scene of her leaving Ido when their daughter died, or show proper disdain when she expressed her bitterness at Ido for choosing to replace their daughter with Alita after her big underground fight with Grewishka; both she and Ido might as well be the human equivalent of puppets in this film./

Now you would think that the fact that she’s so cold, distant and emotionless would KINDA makes her a perfect antagonistic match to Mahershala Ali’s Vector considering how they’re the ones trying to find and kill Alita over the course of the movie by the orders of Nova, but it doesn’t really work out that way.

Because despite Mahershala’s performance, we’re pretty limited in seeing Vector’s style of villainy and how Chiren’s selfishness plays a factor in their partnership, because the majority of the things that were compelling about Vector, didn’t come from Vector. They came from Nova, because he can control Vector.

The only times we see Vector in his element is when he’s manipulating Hugo and trying to establish himself as the ruler of Iron City, which is only in like, two and a half scenes.

/It was definitely possible for the movie to help establish Vector as an intimidating variant of the Dragon trope in this film while not diminishing the mystery of the Big Bad that is Nova, but they didn’t go that route. And considering who they got to play Vector and what it’s been proven he’s capable of, it was such a waste/

But if Vector is an example of not utilizing an actor’s full potential in a film, and Dr. Ido and Dr. Chiren were the posterchildren of not properly displaying emotions in this film, then Alita herself is just Evidence A of going from 0-100 and then back to 0 in the blink of an eye.

/There were instances in which I expected her reactions to be a certain way, like in experiencing the world for the first time because of her memory loss. Wanting payback when she played motorball for the first time. Being curious of Dr. Ido’s actions before finding out he was a Hunter/Warrior. Being denied answers from Ido the more she found out about her past./

/Then she does things like decide to use the blood of the dog she befriended earlier as warpaint as the first thing she does after seeing Grewishka kill it instead of, y’know; getting upset that the dog was killed right in front of her. Immediately offer her heart that’s been established as having enough power to fuel all of Iron City to Hugo -- the only other character after Alita and before Vector that provided a consistent display of emotions over the course of the movie -- in order for him to get enough credits for him to buy his way to Zalem from Vector just because they shared a kiss the night before. Like, damn, girl; go on a couple more dates first. Shit./

While I’m definitely glad that the main character had all the proper emotional responses over the course of this film that the side characters were lacking, it came at the cost of her coming off as either doing the most

Slightly cringey and borderline psychopathic because thanks to her dissonance due to her memory loss

And not knowing how to act when placed in the situations that the movie placed her in.

And while she definitely got better at properly learning the difference between what is enough and what’s too much, it came about an hour and 20 minutes into an already choppy narrative.

And the reason WHY it was choppy, was because James Cameron was trying to do too much.

The way Cameron and Rodriguez told this movie made it feel like there was a full-fledged 50-episode anime of Alita, and they just made a compilation movie using footage from the first 15 to 20 episodes.

Which surprisingly enough, isn’t necessarily a joking jab at how I felt while watching this movie. Because from what I found out, the OVAs I found out were just as detrimental in adapting Alita to live action film as the manga. Maybe even more.

You see, not only were the two OVAs of Battle Angel ALSO inspired by the first two volumes of the manga just like the movie initially was

But is clear in both side-by-side comparisons and research alone that the OVAs not only served as a visual guide for the movie along with the manga (side-by side comparison) but was the main storyline that was adapted.

And that’s mostly due to the scenes and characters that are used in Alita: Battle Angel that originated not from the manga, but from the OVAs.

/Dr. Ido’s ex-wife Dr Chiren? A brand new character made for the animations, with all her scenes from said OVAs being adapted to fit the live-action movie. Y’know, give or take a few things to make sure it kept its PG-13 rating. Same goes with Alita using the blood of the dog as warpaint after Grewishka killed it -- who in Cameron and Rodriguez’s movie is actually an amalgamation of 3 different secondary enemies that were used in the OVA and manga./

While she did use blood as warpaint when she fought against them, it wasn’t the blood of the dog before the fight. It was during their big encounter which the movie set in the sewerway instead of an arena, shortly after THIS happened.

(“Fuck your mercy” scene)

The point I’m trying to make here is that while it’s clear the OVA was just as detrimental in James Cameron adapting this to live action as the manga, there’s no denying that creative liberties were made both in the OVA and his film that both helped and hindered the pacing and natural flow of the story.

/How Alita first met Hugo in the manga is COMPLETELY different than how she met Hugo in the animations, which in turn is COMPLETELY different than how she met Hugo in the live-action movie, for example./

But while the OVAs are just as guilty of adding new elements and making slight changes to the first two volumes of the manga as James Cameron is, it was still ONLY the first two volumes of the manga that were used at the end of the day, and maybe that’s all that James Cameron needed.

/Because while he did use the arcs that were prominent in volumes 1 and 2 -- Alita discovering her past as an URM soldier trying to take down Nova and the city of Zalem while trying to avoid Vector’s attempts on her life, Alita and Ido establishing a form of trust and respect for each other over being Hunter/Warriors, and the overall star-crossed love story between she and Hugo -- he made the executive decision to force it to fit the motorball elements of volumes 3 and 4 into the script as well, with the intent of setting things up for future sequels./ http://collider.com/battle-angel-james-cameron/73916/

/Such as an uncredited cameo of Jai Courtney as the undefeated Motorball champion Alita will have to eventually defeat in order for her to go to Zalem to finally fight and defeat Nova, who is portrayed by an also uncredited Edward Norton and wasn’t even IN the OVAs./

/That’s why I felt that what we got in theaters felt like an anime compilation movie to me. Because Cameron’s decision to take the well-woven arcs of the first 2 volumes of the manga and force it to incorporate elements from the next 2 volumes for the sake of action and setting up sequels made it feel like not only were the initial arcs rushed and paced improperly, but that making one cohesive movie with a narrative that had a decent flow and spoke for itself took a backseat to doing whatever was necessary to establish its franchise potential./

Which sucks, because Terminator and Avatar -- two of Cameron’s own IPs -- are pretty much a golden standard of not needing to heavily use sequel bait into your first installments, when all you have to do is make them the best movies that they can be.

If James Cameron wrote the script to just focus on telling a cohesive story with a solid and even-flowing narrative inspired by the first two volumes containing the arcs that would allow it to do so, I probably would’ve enjoyed this movie a whole lot better with my only critique being how certain characters were portrayed throughout.

/But with the addition of the Motorball stuff from Volumes 3 and 4 forcing the elements of Volumes 1 and 2 to shift around to make it seem like the movie was just trying to cram in as many arcs from the manga as possible and ruining the obvious flow in the process, it was no longer a movie for me at that point. It was a 2 hour long theatrically-released super-edited super condensed visual summary of the first episode of Naruto up to the end of the Chunin Exam arc./

But clearly according to box office numbers, I and individuals who feel similarly to how I do are the minority.

/Because during its theatrical run, Alita: Battle Angel made almost 405 million dollars worldwide with a budget of 170 million dollars, so clearly people liked how the storytelling was handled in this; both fans of the manga and casual moviegoers./

And now that 20th Century Fox is owned by Disney and how they’ve made it known that they’re willing to bend over backwards to help him make his Avatar sequels, I’m sure that they’re looking at the box office success of Battle Angel and are considering the Alita sequels that Cameron clearly wants to do.

Speaking of which, I’m absolutely sure that hardcore fans of the manga wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with how this movie is formatted and what it decided to take from the volumes as far as its incorporation of arcs are concerned. I definitely think that if you read the manga and liked it, or even watched the two anime OVAs, you’ll enjoy Alita: Battle Angel.

But me, personally...(sighs) It was okay.

Right now you can rent Alita Battle Angel starting at $6 on Amazon, Vudu and YouTube, and own it digitally starting at $20 on Amazon, Vudu, iTunes and Google Play

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So with that being said Readers, your homework assignment for the day. Write in the comment section what you thought of Alita: Battle Angel if you’ve seen it.

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But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed.