Alita: Battle Angel is a movie that does not look too

Alita: Battle Angel is a movie that did not try to do too much. You should know what's going on. You may have even read it in the title of this article.

Of course, it recreates a world that once had an unlimited budget of feathers and papers – and decades to explore. This is a movie that boasts the largest and the largest number of IMAX screens. And we only really see half of it. We start with the pile of Iron City and, in many ways, we never really leave it. It is a city that lives from junk, transforms it, integrating it not only into the structure of housing and vehicles, as in many slums, but by integrating technology to the very people who live there – up to what many are much more mechanical they have always been human. The line is blurry and there is no attempt to scramble it. And it looks awesome.

So we have Alita, a totally artificial being reconstituted by the good doctor Dyson Ido, who is never treated as a totally human being. In other words, everything goes from the foam to the rise. Iron City is not a nice pace to live, but it has momentary distractions like good food, motorcycle and hope for a better life in Sky City. You just have to be a better rat than any other rat running.

In his heart, then, it is a story about the clbad struggle, the haves and have-nots coming to strike the American Dream of all you can have as long as you work hard enough to achieve it. There is no obvious destiny here, the game is rigged and the only people who succeed are those who are born with the winning hand.

Many things will be written about Alita's appearance, probably the most compelling CG creation on the screen, and these IMA screens are not easy to deceive when you focus on the ripples of his cheeks. This is not a perfect sham, all facial gestures, all positions on the screen are not absolutely convincing and sometimes the fabric of his jeans just looks too smooth. But an artificial body helps, in the representation, the details of the porcelain structure are beautiful and all the more tragic as its history is revealed. This allows the production team to focus on the really compelling elements, his smile, the contraction of his nose and … his eyes.

This can be the best thing of all. They carried the manga with big eyes, making this literal on the screen for this character. It also makes us more inclined to love it, which triggers our reaction to a baby's big blues. But this also makes the whole picture more convincing by avoiding the mysterious valley where almost perfect is dismissed as totally scary. Alita jumps over the strange valley and makes a double somersault at the same time. And if there is a moment that does not convince – it's because it's a form of artificial life. Robert Rodriguez has his cake and eats it.

I also want to talk about 3D. I actively avoid 3D movies, especially action movies, the speed fights against what I think to be supposed to see, I have headaches, I lose concentration all the time and my brain is fighting what he sees, in every 3D movie that I have. watched – except for Avatar. And now, Alita; Battle Angel. Whatever the influence of Cameron, however, he seems to do 3D differently than everyone else, he does it. And my brain thanks him for that. And yes, it is a world that really benefits from enjoyment in three dimensions.

The relationships in this movie have a lot less dimension. Christoph Waltz completely steals the scenes in which he is, and here with Dr. Dyson Ido (and Geppetto), a good father with a dark past, a cute boy with a dark past, an innocent heroine with a fawn … you get the jist. Their love is pure, instant and undemanding. The bad guys are bad guys unless they are part of the family. And you only grow when you get a new body.

It's the kind of thing that bothers one and makes others laugh. And there was some laughter at Leicester Square in London tonight. But usually they were happy. To find this world through the big eyes of Alitahopes and fears, dangers and thrills, a bar that fights for Kill Bill, a sports battle on Ben Hur, well not spoilers, but there is a scene that is quite reminiscent of Titanic. You know that Rodriguez has planned to have fun with James Cameron.

There are messages that people will grab. Iron City has banned firearms as a means for the Zalem Sky City to prevent its citizens from rising. Or at least that is the tendril. This takes action away from Western tropes to the benefit of movies about samurai and martial arts. You do not even get Chekhov's nonexistent weapon, the rule that if a firearm is found in the first act, it must be fired at the end of the third act.

And so, by adapting the manga, they chose to tell a story somewhere in the middle. It starts really fast, the installation is complete and you are in the basics of the movie from the first minutes. With flashbacks on her past that come up every time she puts herself in danger, giving her the motivation to keep doing this to herself, it makes the plot move forward with a lot more motivation than d & rsquo; # 39; habit. And then that leaves us with an end that some will find unsatisfactory, used to having so much complicated terrain in two and a half hours that you can not breathe. Alita: Battle Angel just find a good place to stop – and lets us tell what's going on in our head. Or many take the comics. It's as if The community of the ring was a natural point of arrival, and it works.

It may be worth knowing that you are going there. No false expectations, but a chance to appreciate what it gives. Will there be a sequel? Does he need to be? Is not this the best story to tell? I thought I would be bored but I felt pretty happy then. Your mileage may vary …

Oh and Ed Skrein should receive some sort of reward for portraying the most unsatisfactory and embarrbading face that you can not help, but what to type. He even has a pic instead of a soul patch …

About Rich Johnston

Editor and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Cartoon light. Political cartoonist.

(Last update January 31, 2019 at 18:16 )

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