Why can't/didn't this film attract a larger audience? - Alita: Battle Angel (2019) Discussion

[–] Wint3rFir3 (7188) 6 years ago

A variety of reasons.

The concept is outdated. People are cautious to check out something that perhaps mirrors Akira: Ghost in the Shell with Scarlett Johansson, and they may not want to support a film that is based on manga but employs almost no Asian actors. The trailers didn't appeal to a lot of people, probably because the target audience for this film is completely unclear - and I make that statement having seen the film. And yes, the CGI-eyes are a turnoff.

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[–] JayNadiah (2) 5 years ago

It was more to do with it getting slated by unfair reviews by the mainstream who are in the pockets of Disney and saw the film as a threat to Captain Marvel so were therefore told to slam the film.

Granted it wasn't panned but the reviews were very unfair.. Alita got reviewed by the mainstream as generally having bad dialouge, a bad love interest, a bad ending and being too confusing of a plot.

Ridiculous. especially when you consider your average marvel film has way worse and cringier dialouge. i thought hugo wasnt as bad as they were all saying.. although i would have prefferred him to be more like the manga character.. but saying it had a bad ending and a convulated plot are just ridiculous.

When the mainstream public .. who 99% of are unaware of hese political agendas going on.. read these reviews it stops them from wanting to see the film...

thats what happened and why more people didnt see it.

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[–] mitzibishi (1882) 5 years ago

Kubrick faked the moon landing and Jesse Ventura planted the C4 to take down the twin towers?

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[–] alienzen (1931) 5 years ago

To the critics of today, a woman having a love interest at all is unacceptable. Unless she is lesbian.

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[–] FilmBuff (7272) 5 years ago

You really believe such conspiracy theories? I'll offer a much more realistic reason-- the movie isn't very good. It's childish, it's unintentionally comedic in all the wrong places, the effects aren't well-done, and the emotions the film tries to generate aren't earned. Characters behave in utterly unexpected and unbelievable ways simply because the filmmakers needed certain things to happen. The film is amateurish, maudlin schmaltz. It's all good for you to enjoy it-- we all have our guilty pleasures-- but take off your tinfoil hat long enough to acknowledge that truth.

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[–] Lampedusean (498) 5 years ago

And the character wasn't sexy enough.

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[–] Guitar King (4916) 6 years ago

Motion capture characters in general are a turn off.

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[–] Quint (957) 6 years ago

Cause most people are dumb. They dont get it anymore when movies offer a believable story and when the main character is likeable (the fights with Alita where way more suspenseful, then all the fights of Infinity Wars and Endgame combined, cause that was a likeable character, which got more depth then all the cardboard MCU characters combined . mentioning the Justige League desaster would be just a waste of time. This black holes would be glad to be called cardboard characters!). They are simply dumb!

They get what the deserve. Boring trash like Endgame and braindead trash like Captain Marvel. Thats what braindead and dumb people get today, cause they arent able anymore to handle really movies.

But it seems like chineses people are once again way more smart then the dumb americans. And thats why we could hope that there will be a coproduction for a sequel to this awesome movie. It was without the smallest doubt one of the best SciFi movies of the 2010s.

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[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

Interesting take that you feel it is the MCU movies that have something to do with the lack of an audience for Alita.

If Alita was too "smart" for any audience why is that the fault of the audience? Why not just dumb down the movie? The Middle Kingdom theater goers seemed to be able discern what they want to watch without someone telling them what is smart and what is dumb. China watched CM to the tune of $154 Million and Alita came in at $133.

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[–] Quint (957) 6 years ago

Indded it shows that movie goers arent able anymore to support real movies anymore. MCU is done since more then a decade using the same formula over and over again. It ws fun once when it started with Avengers 1 or Iron Man 1. But thos days are gone sicne many, many years. Now MCU movies are a sbland and dull as possible. But .... they still got tons of money, even when they arent either movies anymore (Captain Marvel) or are just boring and far too long movies (Avengers 4) anymore.

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[–] huwdj (4567) 6 years ago

Possibly because it's a bit mediocre, has an unsatisfying end - which might be a setup for a sequel - and word of mouth is "ho hum" with an accompanying shrug.
As an aside, I stumbled on 'Cutie Honey: Tears' a while back which has similar story elements with a very good real live person, Hina Fukatsu, in the android role and I thought it was a better film - bet it didn't cost as much either.

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[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

I do agree that the film was too reliant on trying to be a teaser for a franchise without having a compelling character warranting audiences to come back for a future look at the character.

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[–] Quint (957) 6 years ago

You wopuld haven been right, igf this movie was done within the 80s. Back then it would have been mediocre, cause he fatasy/SciFi movies back then were at its peak and Alita wouldnt have to offer anything special. But today, with movies all being without anything you could live with or simply being a dumb chain of computer rendered special effect sequences Alita is absolutley outstanding. You clearly realize how amazing James Cameron is. Cause he is one of the last producers/directors doing good action movies. Cause he know how smart people feel. That they something to associate with. Thats the reason why each and every fight at Alita didnt took half an hour of boring SFX, but instead the feeling that your favorite character was in real danger. That never ever happened at any MCU movie during recent years.

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[–] Kingswood (1260) 6 years ago

MCU movies are great...and make tons of money, so they will continue to be made...thank god!

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[–] Quint (957) 6 years ago

MCU movies have NO story at all and all they are offering is badly rendered fighting sequences which are often more then half a hour long. And cause nobody has any empathy for this cardboard characters (cause the MCU doesnt dare to build up empathy for its characters) its like watching the women wrestling matches at Wrestlemania (cause most times you dont know the contestants and therefor it doesnt whos winning the match). ItMCU movies are just better rendered Amiga render intros which are way, way too long.

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[–] Kingswood (1260) 6 years ago

Awesome movies, compelling and rich. Can’t wait for the next one!

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[–] Quint (957) 5 years ago

People like you are the reason why the fiilm industry is officially and creatively dead.

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[–] Kingswood (1260) 5 years ago

Film industry is doing better than ever ...but i agree they are making far too many reboots/sequels.

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[–] Quint (957) 5 years ago

Its doing horrible. This year profit so far is way worse then predicted and without China most ,movies wont make their money anymore. And the movie industry isnt the leading entertainment industry anymore at all. But thats only the fiscal point of view.

The creativity point of view is the problem. All this agenda stuff and doing braindead trash as multiverses is simply cause there isnt any creativity or the financial support for creativity left. US movies are plain and simple dead.

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[–] Kingswood (1260) 5 years ago

Disagree ...over-the-top action films and live-action animated reboots are in vogue at the moment, and they are doing very well at the box office. Brace yourself for more over the next 3-5 years.

Tell me, exactly what are you looking for? ...("EXACTLY" being the key word)

Like I said, I agree that there are far too many reboots coming down the pipeline and creativity is lacking.

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[–] Quint (957) 5 years ago

Nope, the live action remakes (!) desasters doing desastrous and over the top action movies (like Die Hard) would be awesome. But there arent any.

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[–] Kingswood (1260) 5 years ago

over the top action movies (like Die Hard) would be awesome. But there arent any.

Are you kidding me??

There are dozens of them in the past few years.

Here's one that releases next week...

https://moviechat.org/tt6806448/Fast-and-Furious-Presents-Hobbs-and-Shaw

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[–] WhereIsRent (1080) 6 years ago

Agreed, the MCU is great and they didn't rush anything or overstuff their movies leading up to Endgame. Alita to me had too much going on, not Hellboy (2019) levels of overstuffed but still this was a lot in a 2 hour movie.

Still Alita is a solid film thanks to the special effects, action, and Rosa Salazar's performance and it deserved a bigger turnout at the box office. It's got a much better screenplay than the actual duds of this year; Godzilla 2 and Dark Phoenix.

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[–] mitzibishi (1882) 5 years ago

Robert Rodriguez directed this though, not Cameron.

Poor old Rob. From indie badass to a studios yes man, just to get work and pay the bills. Getting handed dailies from a CGi company.

If this has any of Camerons hands on it im whincing at the idea of an Avatar 2 right now.

And poor Rob has to take the hit as named director.

>or simply being a dumb chain of computer rendered special effect sequences

Sounds like Alita.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8761) 6 years ago

Actually, word of mouth was pretty great. Most people who actually saw the film really enjoyed it. It has a 94% audience score on RT and I think it was largely the positive audience reception that powered the film to $400 million.

I definitely was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Word on the street is that a sequel is a real possibility. I hope that happens.

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[–] huwdj (4567) 6 years ago

I saw the film at the cinema and found it OK but expected more - and it appeared to me that that was the general consensus. Also 400 million return on a film that apparently cost 170 is not that great a return. But having said that I'd go to the sequel just to see what happens next.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8761) 6 years ago

I think literally every comment I saw from moviegoers was very positive. You can look through the old threads here on MC or read some of the audience reviews on RT to get a feel for what people were saying. It also got an A- Cinemascore.

Regarding $400 million, you're right it's not "that great," but it's also much better than predicted. I'm not sure if you followed the early media reports on the film but it was expected to be a huge bomb.

Here's a good article that talks a bit about that:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2019/04/02/alita-battle-angel-avoids-major-write-down-and-could-get-a-sequel/#1868e29c6729

Frankly, the trailers were not super impressive to me, so I went in with modest expectations and ended up being quite pleasantly surprised.

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[–] ultravioletx (10237) 6 years ago

Even though there's a lot of high tech involved it still felt like a cartoon injected into live action. I could see the eyes playing a big part since it is very tricky to modify eyes without stepping into uncanny valley territory. But instead of uncanny valley its like they are stepping into animation.

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[–] Quint (957) 6 years ago

Mixing cartoon with live action is the base of almost any action movies this days. So this wont be anything unusual at all. And within the movie it seems perfectly valid. Only on stills outside the cinema it looked unfamiliar.

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[–] ultravioletx (10237) 6 years ago

CGI and cartoon isn't the same thing. Some CGI works like Thanos. Some comes off as cartoony like Steppenwolf. I found Alita to be somewhere in the middle.

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[–] Quint (957) 6 years ago

Its even almost always the exactly same thing, cause CGI almost never works believable (not even at CGI masterpieces like Jurassic PArk (the believable effects back then all were practical), Avatar or Alita (both done by Cameron, which spend the highest budget for CGI). So you have an extra layer added which is clearly not part of the movie. CGI isnt in use cause its so believable, its used cause its damn cheap. And using less detailed rendering even costs less money. Thats why todays CGI is almost on a level with the laughable pratical effects of the 1950s movies.

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[–] Master (1494) 6 years ago

ghost in the shell?

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[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

Ghost in the Shell was made long after Alita first came out. Too bad the live action movie got the jump on this Alita adaptation.

You're probably very very right. Ghost poisoned these waters.

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[–] Master (1494) 6 years ago

oh well DVD sales should be strong

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[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Audiences are dumb, that's why. They aren't willing to take a chance on seeing anything not by Disney or Marvel Studios at this point.

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[–] NorrinRad (5469) 6 years ago

Why or how does not seeing Alita have anything to do with Marvel/Disney?

It makes even less sense now that Disney owns Fox.

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[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

What I'm saying, is that audiences have become accustomed to only seeing movies from Marvel Studios and/or Disney now. Everything else, they wait for Netflix. Only to often discover that the smaller, non-Marvel movie they saw at home was the one they should have seen at the cinemas all this time.

That's my point.

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[–] alienzen (1931) 5 years ago

The audience are accustomed to Marvel films being great, and other films being crap. It took a decade of Marvel consistently putting out great films to achieve the current dominance. Of course the audience will continue seeing the films for a certain amount of time after they start becoming terrible. It took a serious of crappy films before the bottom fell out of Star Wars and DC. And all hollywood anime adaptations have been terrible up to this point, so its no wonder the audience is skeptical. The first Thor and Captain America films only made about 400m at the box office, the same as Alita. They did better at the US box office of course, but still. There is a definite buzz around the film, even if that hasn't translated to dollars yet, I think in a time when there is a dearth of new IPs and old franchises are sooner or later going to become stale, I think Disney would be wise to take a gamble on this one.

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[–] ATG6 (3000) 6 years ago

because it looks like a video game for teen age boys

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[–] alienzen (1931) 5 years ago

I was quite surprised that Alita has the same ratings among males and females 7.4/.7.4. Captain Marvel on the other hand has a huge split, 6.9/7.6

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