By Megan Ruge, Managing Editor of Content
Books and movies, childlike nostalgia and long awaited sequels have been polluting the big screen. With last year’s top movies being a biopic and a remake, we as moviegoers are looking for something fresh to sink our teeth into.
Insert “Alita: Battle Angel” here.The film is based off of a popular manga set in a post-apocalyptic future world where half-human cyborgs roam free amongst the citizens of Iron City, the only inhabitants of earth left who work for the last remaining floating city, Zalem.
So what do we think? The film, though falling flat with critics, is being praised by fans of anime.
“Death Note,” an anime adaptation released by Netflix in 2017, fell flat with critics and anime fans alike, setting a disappointing precedent for anime and manga adaptations.
Going into “Alita,” fans and critics both prepared for the worst, but the film has firmly smashed their expectations for fans, leading them to believe that the world of a complex manga is, in fact, adaptable to the big screen.
For critics, the film did less than please.
The film delivers fantastically in character development. Though fast moving, the viewers are able to easily recognize and understand each primary and secondary character and their place in the storyline. Names were definitely difficult to remember but facial association was easily developed and it was simple to connect the likeness of the character to their part in Alita’s story.
Another well-developed aspect of the film was the creation of a world that exists outside of our own reality.
The future world in which “Alita” takes place is one that has is multi-faceted: it cheers for a sport played by cyborgs and serves a factory who pays money for bounty hunting. The rough-and-tumble Iron City is well represented in the film. I believe this is because the main character, Alita, is seeing the city for the first time herself and so we get to experience it alongside her as she discovers her identity and who she is in relation to the world she has been brought into.
Though Iron City is well-represented, the floating city of Zalem is something thatremains an absolute mystery. I truly can’t decide whether this was a good choice or a poorone for the filmmakers.
Yes, leaving Zalem unseen does leave something to be desired after you watch the film, almost as if they are teasing for a sequel. But also, not seeing Zalem leaves the viewer wondering what is so great about it anyway. Why does everyone in Iron City long to be part of the civilization in the sky, a society that neither the viewer nor the character actually know anything about? What is so great about this city that people long to go and will do just about anything to get there?
The most unfortunate part ofthe film was its use of action.
There is a such thing as action for action’s sake, something that for some, is enough to make a movie worth watching, but for others, really ruins a good story. Rhythmically, “Alita” fails thanks to the breaks for action that do nothing to drive the story. Because of this, we are rushed to develop the final storyline, reachthe climactic point and resolveit before the film’s end. But because we spend so much time punching each other and blowing things up, we get a messy and sudden ending that leaves the viewer unresolved and unsure about whether they really felt a connection with the film.
To be quite frank, I think that “Alita” could have done much more to create a movie that transcends its originally intended market. That being said, the film should be commended on its character development and world building, but not much more. The film gets 3 stars.