Humanity

Alita Battle Angel - 3/5

Came out for streaming and I got around to it finally. For better and worse I am baggaged with the knowledge of the source material that I had watched and read as a teen ages ago. The live adaption actually does an admirable job of following the general plot of the OVA and elements from the first few books of the manga. Some of the shots look like they were taken directly from the pages of the comic. What brought this movie down for me was the writing and acting - the former very much influencing the latter. Waltz plays his typical self but without the clever dialog from Tarantinos flicks he seems lifeless. Similarly the remaining cast, of which some are greatly talented Oscar winners, flounder in a story of all too familiar archetypes.

What doesn’t help is the absolutely baffling choice to CGI the face of Alita which is a constant distraction in any scene she’s in (so basically 99% of the movie). I understand the intent to honor manga and anime with the stylized large eyes, but someone should have pulled Cameron to the side and let him know that just because we CAN doesn’t mean we SHOULD.

The action scenes were great and rollerball was especially a treat. They even had some high profile aggressive inline skaters to do some of the street skating parts. I wasn’t even bother by how unrealistically the plot advances forward because so much of it was true to the original, but the lackluster writing and Salazar’s weird computer face kept pulling me out of the experience. That said, I would be interested to see a sequel where they can maybe not do the eyes thing.

@inevpatoria: Yah thats a good point because I most certainly don't remember almost anything from ME3, and without Googling a plot synopsis I have no idea how integral Tali is to the plot. To be honest, I never really liked Tali all that much as a character so maybe thats part of it? It's not that I disliked her but there were other team members I enjoyed more and spent more time with like Liara.

I always thought Gone Home was awfully overrated and as such kind of steered clear of Edith Finch for a while. Boy what a mistake because they are nothing alike! I really loved Edith Finch for that fantastical world they build. In retrospect, playing Outer Wilds (also published by Annapurna) really reminded me of it in the way it's such a lovingly bespoke experience. All the rooms, all the side stories, so unique.

While I didn't necessarily cry like Jeff B at the end I did get weirdly emotional. This story of a tragic family while having no relation to my own life experiences did manage to somehow get to me on an emotional level.

EDIT: As for myself, now that game releases have slowed to a typical crawl during the summer season - a phenomenon that continues to completely astound me from year to year - I've fallen into a massive Horizon 4 hole. I'm not a huge racing guy but the structure of the game makes it so.. err.. playable. The speed cameras, the zones, the events and the ever changing weekly seasons with their own special rewards and events keep me coming back for more. I've even dabbled with playing on manual transmission here and there.

It's gotten to the point where I'm actively looking for other games because it feels like I'm spending too much time on Horizon while I could be experiencing other video games.

I think a better question is what do you guys think Alex will actually do. On one hand I can see them sticking to their guns on this as part of the series. On the other I can also see them revising the choice for the added content in ME3? I honestly don't know. Vinny has been trying to be very hands off when it comes to the story stuff (although he still reminds Alex about 50 times per combat encounter to use his abilities). Then again I can see this being a big enough deal where he might suggest a small retcon.

Heads up to folks that as @glots mentioned this IS on GamePass for PC and you don't need the PC centric Game Pass either. I only have the err regular? Game Pass and just downloaded this real easy.

Good to know because otherwise I probably would have never tried it. I'm not really great at these sort of games and I beat stage 1 and stage 2 I was probably in the final-ish segment before calling it quits. Fun, probably won't finish it but a nice throwback. Some of the controls seem weird but maybe thats me and maybe it's also my super old 360 gamepad that I have hooked up to the computer.

More so than washing your feet, how about you take a shower BEFORE going to bed. So you know, you aren't rubbing sweat and grime into your bedsheets and pillow every night and then sleeping in that filth.

But hey, wash your feet too.

@ford_dent: It is the worst episode of that entire series and the one that has the least impact. You would think that with the amount of time they dedicate to that story in episode 2 it would be building towards something, but it really doesn't. The later episodes are much better although still full of filler shots.

Just keep going it’s not that big a deal really. I mean when I played I sure as heck save scummed my way to a perfect mission outcome but I don’t think Alex is THAT into it. Ironically I later lost my save during a move so I got a shitty stock ME3 story anyway.

@notnert427: I think that parts of it are genuinely great. The story also had me hooked in seeing where it will go. But man every episode has the camera slowly panning from left to right then back left again as synths blast over the ever present bluish-purple lighting. It’s artsy as fuck and sometimes that’s cool but more often than not it’s not doing the show any favors.

@rorie: Thanks Rorie!