Alita: Battle Angel – That’s More Like it!

Live action anime/manga/other adaptations have a bad rap. Why? Because I don’t think a lot of people know how to adapt something properly, companies think they can do whatever they want with a franchise for a cynical cash grab, or they aren’t bold enough with their new ideas to sell it to an audience in a quality way. Do you know what is worse? It seems like adaptations that are bold and do their own thing in a quality sort of way don’t sell that well anyway. Should we talk about how Edge of Tomorrow was destroyed because the creators of the movie didn’t know how to market it? Yeah, that was a light novel adaptation with a lot of quality and hard work to it. And here we are with another adaptation called Alita: Battle Angel thrown into the movie market and it’s as awesome as hell.

Alita: Battle Angel is the story of a cyborg doctor finding the upper portion of an android with a living heart and brain missing the rest of their body. That android fell down to the junk yard of the messy Iron City by the upper class city in the sky by the name of Zalem. Over the course of the movie, she figures out what her true identity is while also living the life of as normal of a teenager can be when they are a cyborg. Over the course of a series, Alita turns out to be a teenager and also a martian death robot from a war three hundred years ago. The last surviving one who is here to fight for freedom against the force that is controlling Zalem and society at large. That’s all I am going to say, because there is more going on then that and I don’t want to spoil it all. It’s so cool and anime, it needed a live action adaptation like this.

Do you know why I think Alita worked for me? Because it’s a two hundred million dollar passion project by people that love Alita. James Camera said he loves Battle Angel Alita and you know what? Based on how this movie moved and looked, I can believe that. Especially since it is pretty accurate to the manga with only some minor things for western adaptation purposes and to make the movie work. I can tell you that because I’ve been reading the manga reading. Also, it’s has a decent screen play with good action, solid visual design, a decent soundtrack, and some questionable acting. More proof alongside the original Star Wars that editing can save a movie from horrible acting. (Also, it’s nice seeing something that doesn’t like MCU like. Movies have started looking so boring recently because Marvel and Disney have just been taking over. All the sad.)

So after writing all this, I think you should check it out. I feel like this is going to be another instance when something unique is going to be ignored by the general audiences at large. Maybe it’s time for all of us anime fans to stand up and make sure it’s a success. I don’t think we should let this stepping stone to accurate adaptions die. I just have a feeling that it’s going to be a box office bomb and a sequel is never going to happen. Then again, it’s Cameron and he might make one in a couple decades or so anyway, but I don’t want to take that chance. Even if you haven’t read or watched Alita before, you don’t have to. That’s the magic behind adaptations like this. Going in blind is completely fine. (I’m just against doing that myself, so please ignore me.)