Since Cameron handed over his script to Rodriguez in 2005, the film "Alita" has gone through fourteen years from preparation to birth.
During this period, the sci-fi film industry has experienced at least two major innovation events. One was the shocking "Avatar" by Kashen in 2009, which set off a wave of 3D movies; the other was "Iron Man" released in 2008, pulling Kick off the era of the superhero cinematic universe. The impact of the second event didn't come to light until the release of The Avengers in 2012, when the first phase of the Marvel Universe was a complete success. Since then, the debate on "whether superhero movies belong to science fiction movies" has not stopped in the science fiction and film industries.
For Kashen, he clearly endorses superhero movies as science fiction movies. But he also said, "I hope everyone can get bored with movies like "The Avengers" as soon as possible... There are many other stories we can tell about sci-fi movies."
Battle Angel: Alita is one such "other story". With the joint efforts of James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez and the team behind the scenes, the CG girl "Alita" with a pair of watery eyes was finally presented on the big screen. She comes from the "Steel City" in the 26th century. She is a mysterious girl with a super core and a lost skill "Mecha". She was adopted by a doctor, grew up in a steel city, and gradually discovered the truth about her life.
On February 22, 2019, "Alita: Battle Angel" officially landed in domestic theaters. I was fortunate enough to watch the movie early on February 19th and meet the film's director Robert Rodriguez and star Christopher Waltz. As a loyal sci-fi fan and card god fan, I have been looking forward to "Alita: Battle Angel" for a long time. However, the media reputation in North America in the early stage of the film was worrying. The freshness of Rotten Tomatoes was only 37% at one time, and most of them criticized its sloppy script and poor character design. Therefore, after watching the movie with slightly lower expectations, I found that the criticism on Rotten Tomatoes is really justified...
The special effects production of "Alita: Battle Angel" is undoubtedly the top, especially in the facial effects of CG characters and mechanical armor. Compared with the original Japanese cartoon style, the pure CG characters and high-quality realistic special effects in the film have more visual impact. Whenever Alita jumped from the air and clenched her fists, her aggressive eyes seemed to pierce the screen with her fists. The chilling iron chain sword is combined with the meticulous reflection of the mecha, which is integrated with the dilapidated environment of the Iron City... There are also a lot of impressive details and special effects in the film, all of which show that the film is in A benchmark achievement in visuals.
Even more amazing is the worldview presented in the film. "Battle Angel: Alita" is adapted from the cyberpunk work "Gun Dream" by Japanese cartoonist Yukito Kijo, so the film is full of all kinds of common cyberpunk elements - such as transforming people, mechanical prosthetics, dictatorial upper class, etc. In the comics, Gary (Alita) was rescued by a doctor in the scrap iron town (Steel City) where the lower-class residents gathered. The sky above the scrap iron town is the hanging city of Salem (Sky City Salem), which represents the elite. . This kind of figurative class opposition is not uncommon in recent sci-fi movies, and most of them will become the main point of conflict in the story and become the target of being reversed by the protagonist (such as "Inverse World" and "Elysium"). But in "Alita: Battle Angel", Sky City does not serve as the main point of conflict in the story, but controls everything in secret, which is a utopian existence that is out of reach for the lower world. Most of the characters in the film are full of different degrees of longing for Sky City. However, the way to rise is either self-sacrifice or blood-to-blood fighting. They often try their best but can't get involved, and end with a tragic fate. It not only highlights the cruelty of class barriers, but also helps to spread a more macro plot line. This profound worldview is shaped from the depth of the original work of "Gun Dream", and it also benefits from the excellent visual creation of the film's creative team.
Under the blessing of such stunning visual effects, "Alita: Battle Angel" had the opportunity to become the pioneering work of a great sci-fi film series, but because of its failure at the plot level, it became an embarrassingly mediocre popcorn movie. The characters in the film are full of inexplicable motives, weak emotions, and sudden shifts. Take the male protagonist Hugo as an example. He just took Alita for a ride in the Steel City and won her heart. He is not brave, intelligent, and sincere, neither influencing Alita's conception of the world nor giving Alita enough support in battle. Therefore, the emotional development between him and Alita has no characteristics and layers at all, and even made me feel on pins and needles for a while. The biggest role of this role is to introduce the worldview and keep Alita in crisis. It is a standard plot-driven character, but it bears Alita's vital emotional sustenance. Hugo's target in the original work is the wandering boy Yoger who yearns for the sky. The movie does a good job of restoring Alita's persistent and willful love for him, but it does not portray Yoger's tragic life experience and dedication to dreams. Therefore, the two people's love and trust in each other are like castles in the air, and it is naturally difficult to bring the audience's emotions into the tragic separation of life and death.
Another doctor, Dr. Ide, who has a crucial influence on Alita, can still show the face of a loving father and a strict teacher in the front part. After knowing Alita's life experience, he insisted not to let her incarnate as a "fighting machine" . But after a willful and provocative battle in the mid-term, Alita suddenly changed her stance and replaced her with a strong body. The change in the doctor's concept is actually in line with the plot, but it lacks emotional foreshadowing. After changing Alita's body, the role of the doctor was completely reduced to soy sauce. The emotional description of the two in the film has since been cut in half, which greatly reduced the "father and daughter" relationship between him and Alita.
The decent characters are not exciting enough, and the villains are also typical paper tigers. Not only are they talkative, but they are also weak (I also complained about Ready Player One). The film shows Alita's extraordinary strength too early, but does not match him with the corresponding enemy. The only big robot that has ever caused a threat is actually a staged experience baby. Alita has never been in a real mortal danger, so it is difficult for people to feel her crisis and growth. The climax part of the mobile ball chase in the film only reached a visual "climax", and did not bring emotional sublimation. This damage to the rhythm of the film is very serious.
Alita's exploration of "self", her search for her own composition (mechanical and physical) and her mission, are the core themes in the original work, but they are unconsciously weakened in the film and become a girl's growth experience. Such a plot adaptation makes "Alita: Battle Angel" more like a standardized superhero origin movie than a philosophical cyberpunk sci-fi movie. In fact, this is also the trend of Hollywood comics and movies - the human part is infinitely enlarged, and the divine part is gone. 2017's live-action Ghost in the Shell had the same problem. Although they restore or even surpass the original in terms of visuals and atmosphere, it is obviously a shame (especially for fans of the original) that most of the content with philosophical depth is sacrificed in order to take care of the market.
Alita has a face that is not human, and the ability to transcend mortals. In my expectation, she should be a fallen angel, not just a battle armor with a girl's heart. As I complained in the short review, "Alita: Battle Angel", the combat part is sufficient, but the angel part is rough.
Overall, "Alita: Battle Angel" is an excellent commercial sci-fi film, but it does not take a deeper step in the history of "science fiction movies". This makes me reflect on the fact that in recent years, many sci-fi blockbusters blessed by well-known directors are too obsessed with the shaping of a huge world view. They often have magnificent settings and quite exquisite picture details. Not doing as well as they could - these films include Jupiter Rising, directed by the Wachowskis, Transformers 5, directed by Michael Bay, and Pacific Rim 2, produced by Guillermo del Toro, "City of a Thousand Planets" directed by Luc Besson, and "City of Prey" produced by Peter Jackson, among others. They are all big-budget movies that have been cast in Hollywood-level industry at huge cost. As it turns out, industries can guarantee their ultimate in visual and imaginative expression, but they can't guarantee a full story and characters. On the contrary, in recent years, many sci-fi films with relatively small investment scale, such as "Arrival", "Ex Machina", "Her", etc., do not use special effects as a gimmick, but have won many praises through the creativity and depth of the script. After all, no matter how delicious the popcorn is, only the fragrance of rice is left, but the shock and emotion that touch the heart can reverberate in my mind for a long time.
Will 'Alita: Battle Angel' be the Waterloo of the God of Cards? As of February 21, "Alita: Battle Angel" has a score of 7.6 on IMDB, and the North American box office is 47 million US dollars, which is still a long way from the cost of 170 million US dollars. Let me make an afterthought evaluation: Although Rodriguez's cult taste is in line with the tone of the original book "Gun Dream", but as a long-term director of B-level films, he is very interested in science fiction such as "Alita: Battle Angel". The control of the blockbuster is indeed still under fire. We have reason to believe that if Cameron personally wrote the film, at least in terms of emotional progression and film rhythm, it would be much better. In addition, Kashen did his best to promote the film. With the blessing of high-quality special effects and Kashen's feelings, the film's overseas box office should not be too bad. Personally predict that the domestic box office can reach about 1 billion RMB.
But in all fairness, the finalization of "Alita: Battle Angel" did dampen my personal enthusiasm a bit. In today's sci-fi film industry, Lei Gong is old, Nuo Shen has changed his way, and Lao Si is addicted to playing tickets. Except for the rising bullfrog and Garland, it is indeed hard to find a unique sci-fi director. Beyond the card god, what is the future of science fiction movies? After the premiere of "Alita: Battle Angel" on February 18, James Cameron had a "science fiction dialogue" with Liu Cixin, a well-known domestic science fiction writer. The theme of this dialogue is "James Cameron's Science Fiction Story: A Dialogue with Liu Cixin", which follows the style of the interview documentary "James Cameron's Science Fiction Story" personally directed by Kashen last year. After a business exchange, the two discussed the future of science fiction movies. When talking about the development of science fiction films, Kashen said:
"I think there are many different genres of sci-fi, from deserted escapes to very dark worlds. We go back to your book, and we go back to your book and talk a lot about how society evolves, how technology breaks through, how the universe works, and of course there is darkness, nature, The part of human nature, and the confrontation between nature and man. I want to see something optimistic. What kind of framework can bring us optimistic attitude. But what we need to solve in the end is the devil in our heart. I am an optimist, But I want to see optimistic characters and optimistic parts in the movie... If you want to explore human nature or human consciousness, or the exploration of human civilization in the future, don't start from the starting point of commercialization, but be more pure."
We appreciate the part that belongs to the film industry and the part that belongs to the art of film. For the majority of movie fans, the most popular sci-fi movies such as "Interstellar", "Gravity", and "Mad Max 4: Fury Road" are both visual and plot. So in the final analysis, what can best reflect the value of a movie is always the genius ideas that emerge from the light of day, and the heart of a craftsman who is constantly polished; and what can touch the hearts of the audience the most is always the sincere emotions of the characters in the film, as well as those under the skin. depth of meaning. I believe that Kashen will have the opportunity to continue his legend in the future, and I also believe that "Avatar" will become the greatest sci-fi movie series after "Star Wars" and "Alien".
Good luck to Alita: Battle Angel, good luck to Kashin, and good luck to the future of sci-fi movies.
View more about Alita: Battle Angel reviews
