Skip to main content

Rating: 4.3/5
Review: "Alita: Battle Angel IMAX movie review" (122 minutes)

This is Robert Rodriguez's biggest movie yet and costs a staggering US$200 million. It is easy to see why. The sets are massive loaded with CGI and even many characters are CGI. Alita: Battle Angel has everything a Blockbuster has; action, romance, drama, CGI, epic music. Robert's direction is confident despite him handling a large-scale movie for the first time. As this is based on the manga, it suffers the cram condensation of a few volumes.

The story: The start is surprising as it has no big opening action scene (we are used to seeing a big opening action in most Blockbuster). The sets may be big scaled but the opening feels intimate in terms of emotions. We see Dr. Dyson (Christoph Waltz) finding and rebuilding a female cyborg, Alita (Rosa Salazar). The first 20 minutes are engaging as we discover Iron City from the eyes of Alita. From then on, the pace quickens as we are introduced to more characters, villains and subplots. It is entertaining but the whole film feels it compromises of a few episodes. It doesn't help with the slow fade out transition. With the reasonable runtime of 2 hours 2 minutes, at times, it feels rushed as there are many things to be covered. Acting wise is alright. Many characters are in a form of CGI model so there is nothing outstanding. Rosa does a decent job in emoting as Alita. Music by Tom Holkenborg is epic but somehow generic. It is not as distinctive as his other scores. CGI and sets are great. The last half of the film is packed with well-shot and well-choreographed action.

IMAX 3D: It is not outstanding but it still creates an immersive experience with the extra dimension. It is effective during some of the slo mo scenes. Other than that, it is not particularly mind-blowing but it is worth the extra bucks.

Overall: Alita: Battle Angel is very enjoyable even if it feels rushed especially towards the ending. It could benefit with less subplots and more focus on one aspect (either the Motorball or bounty hunter). I hope it does well in box office to warrant a sequel.  It is worth watching on big screen and IMAX 3D.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rating: 3.4/5 Review: "The Spirit of Ramayana" (103 minutes) "A passable Thai horror movie with an interesting concept but weak execution." As a low-budget horror movie, it has enough entertainment values. In the recent years, there are a few strong Thai horror movies with decent production values and there are many mediocre low-budget horror movies. The Spirit of Ramayana is somewhat in the middle. It may not look that polished but its themes and concept are intriguing enough. The story: The narrative is straight forward however its editing made the movie look messy and disjointed. It is a simple story about Mintra, a young dancer who is rejected for the main role because she cannot pull off an evil and sensual side. However, a spirit helps her to unleash her dark side. On paper, it sounds like a supernatural Black Swan. It lacks the emotional depth of Black Swan as the director seems only interested in churning out cheap scares. As the plot develops fur...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rating: 3.7/5 Review: "The Green Hornet movie review" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is not a bad movie to start on January, a month which okay movie are out. The Green Hornet is a special hero with cool gadgets and cars but the movie turns him into a generic superhero. It is entertaining at best but if you look for a complex plot with a lot of characters' development, this will not sastify. Reid aka The Green Hornet at first in the movie acts like an asshole and making out with girls. Then his father's death hit him hard, but not hard enough. He meets kato and they become The Green Hornet and Kato fighting the bad guys as bad guys. The action scenes are many and loud with explosions. The fight scenes are often played in slow motion. The climax features a cool car chase, a gun fight and a fight in the office. Boom! The climax is loud and explosive and even tearing down the whole office. And it is cool. Who doesn...
Post a Comment
Read more
Quick DVD reviews Rating: 3.6/5 Review: "Batman: Gotham Knight DVD review" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2D animated movie has six different stories which are interesting on their own. The stories are fast-paced and some of them are action-packed due to the short runtime. The whole movie is only 1 hour and 16 minutes. Some of the famous villians are featured like Scarecrow and the Lizard. The six different stories also have their different styles, Batman seems like a fat monster in one of the story and he is a sleak man in black in another. Overall: It is a good watch even for those who are not a Batman fan but are into the recent live-action Batman movies. DVD special features-3.7/5 The second disc features two good and informative featurettes. One is about the villans of Batman (36 minutes). The writers and producers explain some of the famous villians like Joker and Scarecrow. The interesting facts are that they even ...
Post a Comment
Read more