Awesome; thanks! A 7 is, IMO, a solid movie. Maybe not “the bestest thing ever” but certainly “ddamned good”, right? Glad to know that I can keep my plans to see this ASAP.
I read an interview somewhere where they had Alita’s eyes smaller at first and Mr. Cameron saw the footage and told them “no; make her eyes a bit bigger” so they did and Mr. Rodriguez agreed it looked better. As I’ve said, I like her eyes and think they are interesting, not creepy.
Don’t know where you got that it was “3 books”, but it was a monthly serialized manga. The original run was around 53 chapters (collected into 9 volumes) with one sequel (Battle Angel Alita:Last Order) that ran for 124 chapters and was collected into 19 volumes and a second sequel (Battle Angel Alita:Mars Chronicle) that is currently running and is up to chapter 32.
Not sure where I read that either; some fan review or something. I only noted the detail because that was the first and only time I read anything about how many books/issues/whatever comprised Alita: I know nothing about this story other than it’s been a popular title for a long time and what I’ve seen in the trailers.
Thanks for the info.
It has been a while since I read the manga, but I seem to remember that the cracks on her face were only shown in an artistic context. (i.e., she was being depicted metaphorically as a broken doll)
Perhaps a better argument against the eyes is that her eyes are the same as everyone else’s in the manga. Canonically, her most distinctive feature is her mouth.
I see that more people who made it to last night’s showings have written reviews on RT today and they are all wildly positive.
I loved these comics so much when I was a kid. I’m excited for this movie.
I’ve seen trailers and been underwhelmed. She’s definitely in the Uncanny Valley for me. Unless the reviews are boffo, I probably won’t see it.
Okay, I just got tickets to see this on the 14th. I got perfect seats (back row center) for an early afternoon 3D D-Box showing, because hey why not sit in motion control seats? 
I plan on getting very stoned before the movie and then trying out a pizza joint that sleestak recommended on that side of town. It should be a good afternoon!
Side question: large eyes- to a point- are considered beautiful. What’s the tipping point into Uncanny Valley territory? Did anyone ever make comparison photos with progressively larger eyes to test that?
Saw this last night as it came out in the UK on Saturday.
I enjoyed it - well worth the money. 
Read the manga about five years ago and it seems quite a faithful adaptation of the first three volumes. Certainly captures the spirit.
I just saw it last night. Thanks to getting a $4.00 deal for any showing, I went with the IMAX 3D option, about which I am happy I chose and regret at the same time.
When the time came to put on the 3D Goggles, something seemed a bit off, but didn’t matter whether I had my glasses on or off under them. Then I heard several other audience members grumbling about the same problem, until someone spoke up and said that it works if you put on the glasses backwards. Everyone seemed to be happy enough with this solution, albeit a bit awkward balancing giant novelty 3D glasses on the tip of your nose, until about 5 minutes into the movie when it froze, right at the point where [SPOILER ALERT] Alita opens her eyes for the first time. After about a minute of that, the screen went blank and the audience was informed that they were trying to fix the problem so we could watch with our 3D glasses on normally. Over the next 20 or 30 minutes there were a few false starts until the movie finally re-started with the correct polarity. Thanks to this, everyone got free passes at the end of the show, so I now get to see two movies for four bucks. Lucky me!
While the 3D was working, my brain was still having problems keeping up with everything, and I was reminded why I usually avoid seeing movies in 3D. Still, it worked well enough that I don’t think I missed anything important, and the scenery and close-up shots were truly beautiful, but I did have a hard time with the busier action scenes. I’d like to see it again on a regular 2D screen, but probably won’t.
Regarding the big eyes, to me they pushed Alita’s character all the way past uncanny valley to her being a very detailed anime cartoon girl interacting with actual human actors. Even her movements were clearly those of a CGI character and not those of an actual human actor. That said, it all made sense since the character was an android with the brain being her only actual human part.
Story-wise, I was not a fan of the love story, and the dumbest scene of the movie was when Hugo decided that when his girlfriend was having the biggest race of her life, that was the best time to run off to a dark alley and loudly announce to his partners in crime, while they are engaging in their criminal activities, that he is turning over a new leaf and getting out of the robot-dismemberment business. Like, couldn’t you have found a better time to tell them that, which would have been pretty much any other time than right then.
I never read the manga, but I understand from comments I’ve read elsewhere that the love story was a significant part of the source material, but I think the movie would have been much better if Hugo’s role was diminished if not eliminated completely.
Otherwise, the imagery was excellent, the action was top-notch, and the performances of nearly every character not named Hugo were pretty good as well. I would definitely recommend it.
Alita was a robot with a human brain and Hugo was a human with some sort of bad-judgement machine installed where a brain should be - every choice he made was going to get that guy killed, and the reveal towards the end indicates he was doing that even before he met Alita. And she was even worse - what did she plan on using to live after her creepy “anything for you” scene?
Like you, I found it entertaining, with the weakest elements being the romance. Critics are complaining that the ending turns the movie into a 2-hour prologue, but it was an interesting prologue.
I skipped the pizza but the rest of the plan went perfectly. 
I’d give the movie a solid 8.5/10. Good story, good acting, amazing CGI/“look”, great action scenes, etc. I agree that the love story was the worst part of the movie but I don’t think it was bad. Agree that it was kind of disappointing to end the way it did, but also understandable (as long as the inevitable sequel kicks major fucking ass).
The 3D was well done and often added quite a bit to the shot. The D-Box motion seats were fun as hell.
Next time I see it tho, I want to see it in regular IMAX so I can better focus on some of the details in the shots.
She did say she was going to buy a cheap knock-off heart to replace her super-advanced heart.
I forgot to mention that I was a little surprised at the level of gore/violence.
And her dad told her that only the super-advanced heart would run her URM-tech body, so without it she’d be a talking torso. :dubious:
Not only is Alita a bit of an Uncanny Valley Sally to me. The movie itself looks dumb. I don’t know how to describe it. Compared to other “live action anime”, it doesn’t look “mind blowing” like The Matrix or fun like Scott Pilgrim. It just sort of looks flat and lifeless like Ghost in the Shell.
I just got back from seeing it. I quite liked it. The love story is a little too formulaic as mentioned above. I bought her emotional reaction to life’s situations (the early part took a little getting used to). I liked her being proud of who and what she was in spite of Dr Ido. (I get so tired of movies where some hero says something like “I shouldn’t exist. Blah, blah, blah”.) I like that she took her blows and wasn’t invincible. The action sequences were very intense and enjoyable. I like that Ido wasn’t stereotypical “I know better than you” father figure. Sure he had his moments. But, he knew when he was beaten and that he wasn’t in a place to be making demands. He bowed graciously. I’m looking forward to a sequel.
I enjoyed it. It was entertaining and I would recommend. I will say that I could tell it came from a highly revered (and thus highly copied) source material. It kind of suffers from the "Die Hard’ effect. There’s been so many copies and derivative works that I didn’t feel like I was seeing anything new in terms of ideas or even visuals (which were gorgeous). I agree the romance was the weak point. Was she supposed to come off as a psycho girlfriend? I will see the sequel, but I might need a refresher since I don’t think this is going to be that memorable.
I may see it and would like for it to be a good movie. It’s not getting very favorable reviews, however. Metacritic has it around 55%, and Rotten Tomatoes at 60%. That’s not disastrously bad, but it’s exceptionally “meh”.