Alita: Battle Angel
It’s just a body. It’s not bad or good, that part is up to you.
Dr. Ido
Summary:
Alita: Battle Angel follows the story of Alita as she tries to remember who or what she is. In a world filled with cyborgs, ordinary people, and a ton of villains, this proves to be harder than expected. Under the caring eye of Dr. Ido, Alita begins to grow into the woman she was before she was dismantled and abandoned in the dump. As she discovers herself, Hugo helps her learn about the brand new, and quite different, world around her. It isn’t until she discovers Dr. Ido’s real job that she starts to realize who she was.
Characters:
Alita is our protagonist and we get to see her develop from the ground up. Being a cyborg with no memory she crafts herself a new life living with Dr. Ido who rebuilt her. Alita is intelligent, inquisitive and she’s a pretty good fighter when the occasion arises. Dr. Ido is a man who helps fix’s people’s mechanical body parts and rebuilds Alita using the mechanical body he built for his daughter who was killed. Ido is a kind man who tries to do good but who can be overprotective a lot of the time. Hugo is a young man who gets to know Alita quite well as he shows her the ropes and he begins to have felt her as well. Hugo also has great ambition and will do some not great things to accomplish his goal.
Nathanyal: 8.9/10
Alita: Battle Angel was an interesting movie to watch. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a sci-fi movie all about future technology in a post apocalyptic world. In a nutshell, I enjoyed this movie. There was some great action, good characters, and even a nice storyline. However, for a two-hour movie, it covered a lot, and not much at the same time.
So, let me get the negative out of the way because there’s only one thing. That was the pacing of this movie. For a two-hour movie, they tried to accomplish a lot. There were many twists and turns that I enjoyed. However, the ending is what annoyed me. In the final arc of the movie where everything was coming together, it just felt too short, and the resolution felt weak. On the contrary, after watching the whole movie, the beginning felt too long and a bit slow. I guess the only real downside of this movie was how much they wanted to put in at once.
Now, onto the positives. For one, I enjoyed the setting and the world that this movie takes place. Everything makes sense and seeing such a futuristic world interested e a lot. I also enjoyed seeing Alita as the protagonist. She was both interesting and likeable and seeing her development and her past was all really cool. Besides Alita, I enjoyed the side characters as well. These side characters weren’t just archetypes. They had development as well. They also felt necessary to the story. They weren’t thrown in there just because the movie needed another character. Besides the characters, I enjoyed seeing the development of the plot. A lot of stuff happened in the movie. And they definitely could have split it into two movies.
Overall, this was an enjoyable movie. For a two-hour run time, they were able to squeeze a lot of content, but this could also be their downfall, since the beginning was a bit slow, and the ending was weak. It was still enjoyable to watch the characters and to see the world around them.
Austin: 8.5/10
Our second fan suggestion is a really solid movie. It starts really well, both pacing-wise and character-wise. I thought Alita, Hugo, and Dr. Ido were all really well written, and the secondary characters were used well. They weren’t overused to the point where they felt like budget protagonists, but they also weren’t shells with no screen time. The plot is curious, and surprisingly a lot better in the first half than the second.
The pacing of the first half is really quick, and the plot is full of stuff. We get a ton of cool tech, just a ton of characters, and a really cool sport. The sport doesn’t quite fit the plot at times, but it does provide some entertaining filler. My issue with the plot was the second half. The whole thing feels really rushed. Where the first half was calculated and well detailed, the second half felt like they were fighting against a shrinking clock to fit everything. There are a couple of storylines that get rushed along, and then a really interesting revelation that lasts all of 5 minutes and feels quite pointless. A really fun plot, with a well-built world, but I wish they would have developed the back half better.
Alita and Hugo are part of a pretty well-written cast, and their development is great. We ignore development for the rest of the cast for the most part, but I didn’t mind that decision. It wasn’t necessary and I don’t think it would have helped the movie. The focus on our main protagonists leads to some really deep characters and more emotional attachment.
Even with the rushed ending, I thought this was a really good movie. The plot is pretty interesting, and the futuristic sci-fi technology is super cool. If you are looking for a solid one-off movie, this is it!
Sebastian: 8.3/10
I had no idea what to expect when I started this movie and overall would say it was an entertaining experience. I felt that the film moves at a very quick pace but it never was too confusing and it kept me engaged at all times as there always seemed to be something interesting going on in the first half. The characters themselves are all pretty good though outside of Alita, Ido, and Hugo very little is explored with the other characters. Alita was a great choice as a protagonist as she’s just learning things for the first time and so are we and Rosa Salazar did a great job portraying that. The action in the film was really cool and each action scene had many cool fights that took place and each fight felt unique to the other. I thought that the world established in the film was quite intriguing and had a lot of potentials. I really did like hearing about its history and the way it worked One of my negatives would be that there isn’t much of a story in this film as much as there is just a series of events tied together with reoccurring characters and while most times that would automatically be a bad sign for a movie, in my opinion, I liked these characters and was curious about this world. Though without a central narrative I felt that the movie sometimes would lose focus and it would feel like the characters are just wandering which is not a positive. The pacing in the second half of the film also feels rushed while at the same time feeling like they couldn’t decide how to end it. This movie didn’t feel like it knew how it wanted to end and there wasn’t a lot of resolution with an obvious setup for a sequel but I still wanted more.
All in all, a pretty solid action sci-fi movie with some good characters and action scenes that would make me recommend it. So hop on Netflix and see for yourself.
