MovieChat Forums > Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Discussion > Haven't seen the movie, but the concept ...

Haven't seen the movie, but the concept seems dated.

posted 5 years ago by pbt (108)
18 replies | jump to latest

Like the Cameron Diaz movie Bad Teacher from 2011. It would have been subversive had it been released in the 1990s, but in 2011 it's just filling in something that the 1990s missed and expecting but failing to get the same reaction.

Same with the 2017 Ghost in the Shell. It was a mindfuck when the 1995 anime came out, but the concepts are old hat today.

Or like the Carl Sagan TV series Cosmos which was deep and profound in 1980. But Neil deGrasse Tyson's version in 2014 failed to impress. The public has seen a lot since then, and it takes a lot more to impress people today.

Again, I haven't seen Alita: Battle Angel, but going by the trailers and promotional material, there was a time when it would have been cutting-edge cool, but today they seem a little over-confident in their assumptions about the viewer.

[–] BrunoAntony (1198) 5 years ago

You haven’t seen the film, so your judgement of it is uninformed and irrelevant.

[–] pbt (108) 5 years ago

It's the judgement of a prospective movie-goer. Someone who's being asked to pay money to go see a movie. It's extremely relevant. That it has made less than A Star is Born despite costing many times its budget means they have made a miscalculation somewhere.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Blair Witch Project is still I believe the movie with the highest profit margin considering its tiny budget, so them shouldnt all movies be measured against that?

A Star is Born is a remake of a well known classic that has been remade before, and features two of the biggest celebrities alive right now. Not an apt comparison.

Plus, they are wildly different genres with different target demographics.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16135) 5 years ago

Do you have to watch all of Ed Wood's movies to know they suck?

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

OP, your point is valid, but completely uninteresting.

[–] albertmar (93) 5 years ago

Nah, I thought the original post was interesting. I hadn't considered that about Bad Teacher and Ghost in the Shell.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

I dont think Bad Teacher was made to be subversive, just funny and having Diaz playing a slacker. I loved it, that and Bad Words are my two favorite of movies with the "Bad X" title (until mine comes out, Bad Reception).

The OP should have put Alita in the same category as Ghost/Shell, except earlier, since the original Battle Angel came out first and strongly influenced Ghost.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

It's just that it's only in recent years that movie technology has advanced to the point where this kind of thing looks really good as a "live action" presentation instead of just traditional 2D animation.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Isn't the concept broadly similar to James Cameron's Dark Angel?

"Set in 2019, the series chronicles the life of Max Guevara (Alba), a genetically enhanced super-soldier who escapes from a covert military facility as a child. In a post-apocalyptic Seattle, she tries to lead a normal life while eluding capture by government agents and searching for her brothers and sisters scattered in the aftermath of their escape."

I haven't seen it yet, will probably catch on VOD...

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The "Battle Angel Alita" manga first came out ten years before James Cameron's Dark Angel.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Interesting. Did not know that.

Must be just coincidence. No way would Cameron ever lift ideas or concepts from anyone else.

/s

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Cameron doesnt lift, he borrows ;)

Seriously tho, I think Oscar Wilde said "Originality is undetected plagiarism."

[–] Alex (1477) 5 years ago

Dark Angel' Alba had the worst on-screen acting I've ever seen to this day. I couldn't even manage 2 episodes and I had major hots for her at the time :/

[–] codebasher (29) 5 years ago

Pbt. Go see the movie, I guarantee you will be very pleasantly surprised. From all things technical and Character development to a protagonist you absolutely fall in love with. Alita Battle Angel is a move that shows just how much passion and heart James Cameron has invested in this.

Like Elan Ripley and Sarah Connor, Alita transcends from being just another lead character to becoming a complete human being who is unique and amazing. I'm confident I speak for many others when I say, that also like Ripley & Connor, Alita leaves a mark on your soul.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Its futuristic sci fi, so no its not dated in tech terms.

The cyborg "hard body" with preserved human brain is something I have barely seen, if at all.... tough to think of offhand because its a concept I use in a script too.

The story atmosphere itself is slightly dated since its based on a 90's anime that has influenced things which followed it, such as Ghost in the Shell.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

"The cyborg "hard body" with preserved human brain is something I have barely seen, if at all"

RoboCop comes to mind.

Worthington's character in Terminator: Salvation.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 5 years ago

Didnt Worthingtons character have most of his human body still? Plus his mind was altered.

Robocop falls into partial cyborg for survival like Darth Vader, both still having their face and a lot of their body (less in the Robocop remake of course).

Now a 100% match is Robocop 2, RoboCain. Only the brain installed.

Yep, good reminder, thanks.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

It has been awhile since I saw T: Salvation. IIRC, Worthington's character was a convict(?) who was used in a medical experiment. He wakes up after the Skynet takeover. Later in the movie while working on his wounds, Bryce Dallas Howard discovers he's a cyborg with no recollection of being converted from a human.

I guess, if he was like the other Terminators, he was flesh over an interior robotic body. Does that count for 'just a brain in a robot body'?

I'm in the minority in that I really liked Salvation and wished that they had carried on with that storyline. I read that originally it was John Connor who was going to be revealed as a cyborg, but that story twist got leaked to the internet and they had to change the script.

It looks like it became the basis for the next movie instead...