Finally sat down to watch ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. It was good, not great. It's DEFINITELY what I would expect a live action version of a manga/anime property would look like with Robert Rodriguez at the helm. There were lots of good to great scenes, and while Rosa Salazar did her best, the fact that everyone else was CGI'd onto robots parts, and she was mo-capped to be completely CGI'ed in face to mimic the big-eyes of anime started to irritate me when like the 3rd cyborg with only a human face started to show up....There's no reason for Rodriguez to do that and it feels like an intense waste of money, and a waste of Salazar's acting to not have her actually be present in the role and instead have her be a cartoonish head just to pay homage to the comic...and from what I understand James Cameron's idea was that she would look like the rest and it was Rodriguez who came up with the full CGI's mo-capped thing...and it stands out throughout the movie. She feels not remotely as real as everyone else does, and feels deliberately uncanny valley.
The story was fine, and action was fine, and even the direction was fine...but yeah...it just kind of is. I wish it had been better.
eDIT: Oh and Ido's "jet hammer" thing did NOT translate well in live action. What an utterly stupid weapon for him to use. It looked fine in the anime, but as a live action prop....yikes.
This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 19 April 2023 - 03:58 PM
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon