Alita: Battle Angel (2019) (1 Viewer)

[Johnny Angell]

Wow that is crazy pricing for seeing a movie! Thankfully our pricing is half that still.

Where about are you?

 

[Dave Upton]

I saw it last night in Dolby Cinema. For some reason, my AMC has added blue lighting along the side walls (underneath the acoustic treatments), I guess to compete with the RPX look, but this ruins contrast on the bottom left and right corners.

I swear these theater operators are all idiots.

That said, I thought this was a very entertaining and visually stunning film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm hoping that it will start to do better based on word of mouth, as it deserves the love. RT shows just how badly snobby "professional" film reviewers miss the mark vs audiences, talk about a stunning juxtaposition:

 

[JimmyO]

Seriously considering a second viewing tomorrow. Should I IMAX again, or something else? I have all the options.

 

[dpippel]

I've got my ticket for IMAX 3D at 10:00AM tomorrow morning. Popcorn for breakfast!

 

[Edwin-S]

I am thinking of going to Kamloops to see this film again in AVX 3D. Still not IMAX or Dolby Cinema but I think it would still be a step above the RealD version in the shitty cinema we have in my town. God, I wish some other company would build a decent large format theatre where I live and put Cineplex out of its misery. Hell, I'd be happy if we could finally get a proper theatre with stadium seating and decent leg room. I fucking hate Cineplex because they do nothing to upgrade their theatres in small market cities. A 3D viewing is almost 14 bucks and the theatre is complete shit with outdated worn out seats and a sloped floor design that is the worst thing ever to be introduced into theatre construction. Even the two theatres that were built here in the '60s had a better floor design with a stepped riser design that ensured people didn't have to look through someone's skull to see the screen. I was sorry to see those theatres get torn down.

It is hard to believe that at one time we had five separate movie theatres in town when I was a kid. Sure, two of them were rickety old wrecks of buildings, but even those felt more theatre-like with their balconies and love seating sections than the ONE theatre that we have now. Every time I go to the theatre now and have to sit through a raft of commercials before the film starts just makes it feel like I am watching TV at home, albeit with a lot less comfort.

Man, now that was a movie experience when I went to Edmonton and saw "Dunkirk" in full-blown 70mm IMAX. I wish to hell I could have that experience where I live and not have to do a 1900km round trip to see a film projected the way it should be projected.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

There was a lot that I liked, and there was a lot that frustrated me.

Alita, as executed, fell into the uncanny valley a bit for me, though no enough to alienate me from character. The two big issues for me were 1) her teeth didn't look human and, unlike the oversized eyes, were supposed to look human; and 2) Rosa Salazar's dialog didn't always mesh well with the surrounding dialogue, probably when they used the on-set sound for the other actors and then Alita's dialog was recorded in a sound booth.

My biggest issue with the movie is that it didn't tell a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. In the old days, they'd make a movie, and then -- if it did really well -- they'd make sequels to it. Now every movie out of the gate sees itself as chapter one in a multiple-picture franchise, and they don't spend enough time making sure Part 1 feels like a complete experience. All movie, we hear about how this guy Nova is person who Alita is destined to defeat, and by the end of the movie it feels like she's less than half way to her goal.

Damn, my 3-D IMAX viewing at 10:00 a.m. only cost me $10.00

My standard 2D screening cost $4 more than that.

 

[Dave Upton]

I am thinking of going to Kamloops to see this film again in AVX 3D. Still not IMAX or Dolby Cinema but I think it would still be a step above the RealD version in the shitty cinema we have in my town. God, I wish some other company would build a decent large format theatre where I live and put Cineplex out of its misery. Hell, I'd be happy if we could finally get a proper theatre with stadium seating and decent leg room. I fucking hate Cineplex because they do nothing to upgrade their theatres in small market cities. A 3D viewing is almost 14 bucks and the theatre is complete shit with outdated worn out seats and a sloped floor design that is the worst thing ever to be introduced into theatre construction. Even the two theatres that were built here in the '60s had a better floor design with a stepped riser design that ensured people didn't have to look through someone's skull to see the screen. I was sorry to see those theatres get torn down.

It is hard to believe that at one time we had five separate movie theatres in town when I was a kid. Sure, two of them were rickety old wrecks of buildings, but even those felt more theatre-like with their balconies and love seating sections than the ONE theatre that we have now. Every time I go to the theatre now and have to sit through a raft of commercials before the film starts just makes it feel like I am watching TV at home, albeit with a lot less comfort.

Man, now that was a movie experience when I went to Edmonton and saw "Dunkirk" in full-blown 70mm IMAX. I wish to hell I could have that experience where I live and not have to do a 1900km round trip to see a film projected the way it should be projected.

Where are you at? I grew up in Vernon, which is pretty close to Kamloops.

 

[Edwin-S]

Where are you at? I grew up in Vernon, which is pretty close to Kamloops.

Small world. Quite a bit further North though. Prince George.

 

[Dave Upton]

Funny enough, I lived in Williams Lake for a few years too. I've spent a fair bit of time in Prince George. I do hate the cinemas when I visit BC though - always disappointing vs what I have here in Texas.

 

[Edwin-S]

Funny enough, I lived in Williams Lake for a few years too. I've spent a fair bit of time in Prince George. I do hate the cinemas when I visit BC though - always disappointing vs what I have here in Texas.

Some of the theatres in the Vancouver area are not bad such as the one in Richmond. Langley has one that isn't too bad, although it is getting somewhat run down. Some areas of it have been closed. Cineplex Odeon owns most of the theatres in BC. Like I mentioned, they do very little to keep their theatres upgraded and up to date. Do you mind if I ask what you do for a living?

 

[Tino]

There was a lot that I liked, and there was a lot that frustrated me.

Alita, as executed, fell into the uncanny valley a bit for me, though no enough to alienate me from character. The two big issues for me were 1) her teeth didn't look human and, unlike the oversized eyes, were supposed to look human; and 2) Rosa Salazar's dialog didn't always mesh well with the surrounding dialogue, probably when they used the on-set sound for the other actors and then Alita's dialog was recorded in a sound booth.

My biggest issue with the movie is that it didn't tell a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. In the old days, they'd make a movie, and then -- if it did really well -- they'd make sequels to it. Now every movie out of the gate sees itself as chapter one in a multiple-picture franchise, and they don't spend enough time making sure Part 1 feels like a complete experience. All movie, we hear about how this guy Nova is person who Alita is destined to defeat, and by the end of the movie it feels like she's less than half way to her goal.


My standard 2D screening cost $4 more than that.

I pretty much agree with all your issues Adam and yet I still loved the film.

The positives for me were enough to overcome those issues and really connect with Alita and her world.

What’s really unfortunate is that barring a miracle box office gross overseas, it’s likely this will be Alita’s sole cinematic adventure. That’s the most frustrating part for me as I want more.

 

[Tino]

$40 million range seems to be a logical assumption, Might be a bit generous.

By Tuesday, it’s 6th day of release, it will have already reached $40 million. It’s performing better than early tracking indicated.

 

[Edwin-S]

@Tino

You asked me what I thought of the film. Earlier in the thread, I mentioned that I generally liked it. I thought they did a pretty good job of capturing the characters and the world. They managed to capture some of the brutality of the motorball sport; however, it wasn't nearly to the level and dynamism that Kishiro managed to portray in the original manga. At the time I thought some of the dialogue was a bit on the cheesy side, especially when Alita is professing her love for Hugo. The "puppy love" feel to the romance made me cringe a bit; however, when I think about it I have to say that maybe it actually makes more sense than I first thought. I mean, after all, she was a being created entirely for war. it isn't like her builders would have taken into account any emotional need or understanding about love, so falling for Hugo as a first love and naively offering her heart to him may have been a more natural than I thought. My perception of the "romance" is probably coloured from years of seeing films where teenagers are all shown as if they are miniature adults that are preoccupied with getting drunk, stoned and laid, so seeing a romance between teenagers depicted as something more innocent and naive comes across as cheesy and unrealistic.

 

[Edwin-S]

AFAIAC, the issue of creating a film without a definite end is due to the fact it is based on a very long manga series. The story in the film was already highly compressed and crammed in a lot of material that took something like five or six 200+ page volumes of manga to tell. I'm not sure they could have made a film that contained the entire manga's story without losing massive chunks of it.

AKIRA suffered from the same problem. I think it is a fantastic Japanese animated film but the story is somewhat disjointed because of trying to compress a story that took place over thousands of pages of manga into a 90 minute film. Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" film has some of the same issues. The animated film has an end, but it is kind of an unsatisfying one. The film covered roughly the first three volumes of Miyazaki's manga. If a person wanted to see how the story really ended, they had to read the next 4 volumes of the manga to finish it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yes, the film has flaws with some of the dialogue, but like Tino; I still love this film. I'll probably see it for the third time before it leaves the cinema. I hope audiences start responding to the positive feedback from those of us that have seen the film. When this film's trailers first came out, I thought to myself that I wouldn't even bother seeing it. Some comments in this thread convinced me perhaps I should give this film a chance. I'm glad I changed my mind and I hope others that weren't interested in it too, would also change their minds.

 

[TJPC]

By the way, I saw this in IMAX 3D. With it were trailers for the new “Godzilla”, “Captain Marvel”, and just about every action movie coming out. We were not told to put on our 3D glasses, and they were shown flat. I carefully watched the previews at the end to see the usual “shown in IMAX3D, real 3D etc, but none of them had it. Is everything this summer being shown flat?

 

[Johnny Angell]

By the way, I saw this in IMAX 3D. With it were trailers for the new “Godzilla”, “Captain Marvel”, and just about every action movie coming out. We were not told to put on our 3D glasses, and they were shown flat. I carefully watched the previews at the end to see the usual “shown in IMAX3D, real 3D etc, but none of them had it. Is everything this summer being shown flat?

Yeah, I’m worried about that too. It may just be that they are not being shown in 3D iMax. Which still sucks.

 

[mattCR]

Having seen it, it so effectively matches everything that Manga is for the same reasons that Adam dislikes it helps me love it; part of it is that it is always just a segment; no matter what happens next or before, that isn't truly relevant. The fact it so effectively told the story and maintained the Lady or The Tiger element worked for me completely. Whether or not there is a sequel isn't really a thing that matters; I'd love a sequel, but it isn't important.. my imagination is allowed to think of different consequences and that is all good

 

[dpippel]

I just got back from my IMAX 3D screening, and I really liked the film. Sure it had some script and pacing problems, but I was thoroughly entertained. It was so refreshing just to see something *different*! The effects were amazing, the production design was really cool, and Alita herself was quite jaw-dropping in my opinion. No uncanny valley for me. She was completely believable in every way, especially her eyes. She just worked.

The IMAX 3D presentation was flawless. Great depth and clarity, although I'd still kill to see a 3D IMAX film that looks as perfect as the IMAX countdown trailer! I'd give Alita a very solid 3.5 out of 5 stars, and I'd see it again for sure.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I just got back from my IMAX 3D screening, and I really liked the film. Sure it had some script and pacing problems, but I was thoroughly entertained. It was so refreshing just to see something *different*! The effects were amazing, the production design was really cool, and Alita herself was quite jaw-dropping in my opinion. No uncanny valley for me. She was completely believable in every way, especially her eyes. She just worked.

The IMAX 3D presentation was flawless. Great depth and clarity, although I'd still kill to see a 3D IMAX film that looks as jaw-dropping as the IMAX countdown trailer! I'd give Alita a very solid 3.5 out of 5 stars, and I'd see it again for sure.

Agree with all you wrote and especially the countdown trailer. Too often, it has better 3D than the movie.