I watched Alita: Battle Angel today · 7:19am Feb 15th, 2019
I was a huge fan of the manga when I was a kid. Nah, it wasn't too violent! Besides, my younger sister introduced it to me. 
I'll skip the obvious complaints about how it's not as good as the original. I can understand they had to tone down the violence to not get an R or NC-17 rating. And I suppose they have to dumb down the story a little for the mainstream -- the morally grey characters became more good or evil. Though ironically, those changes made the story more confusing for reviewers because the character motivations don't fit the arcs.
But one choice that baffled me was James Cameron's need to constantly explain the history of this dystopian world and the amnesiac main character. The original did it better by leaving that entirely mysterious until the end of its run. Nobody understood or even cared how their world ended up this way, which made it feel more oppressive because they can't imagine any alternative. The manga could hint at this epic backstory and... it's not just about subtlety, because it did have a lot of exposition too. The manga's world felt strange and exotic because it was constantly surprising you. The movie's world feels generic by comparison, because the characters themselves never seem surprised by anything.
I think that's the one thing I really ask for in these futuristic movies. I don't think Blade Runner's story is as good as the original book, but the setting had tons of personality and mystery. Ridley Scott was great at that in his sci-fi films. Star Wars was another good example, after George Lucas edited out all the boring exposition. and of course Alita was partly inspired by the Mad Max trilogy. These all understand that the plot needs to be clearly communicated (sometimes bluntly) but allow the audience come to their own conclusions about the environment.
to be fair, it doesn't offend me like all the other Hollywood live-action anime adaptations. I'll cheer when Akira crashes and burns. But Battle Angel.... well, if it miraculously becomes popular and spawns sequels, I'm OK with that. It deserves a little fame.
Honestly, I think I enjoyed the movie only because I went in with zero expectations. The eye candy was pretty good. The eye thing was pretty weird. But mostly — as I grumped over on Twitter — it's been a long time since I've seen a movie where the main character was so aware that they were The Protagonist, and all the side characters were making such an obvious effort to demonstrate their relevance to the plot.
(I've also been spoiled by all the fantastic superhero movies coming out in the past few decades which have made an effort to set up villains with coherent lives and motivations of their own. Because dear gods, Nova is such a monumental failure of both villainy and basic logic.)
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since it's currently doing really well with audiences, I admit I'm in the minority on this one. I kept getting distracted by intentional story changes that took out much of the nuance and humanity. I suppose it was still fun and exotic enough to hook general audiences, and the subtlety isn't too important. Even I was impressed how well the action scenes emulated the manga. I'm guessing this was Robert Rodriguez's doing, him and the Wachowskis are like the only Hollywood directors who really understand over-the-top anime action.
Just on a hypothetical level, it makes me wonder if it's doing well in sales because the story was simplified, or in spite of that? Like even ignoring the original manga for a second, the movie's villains get all jumbled up in the plot, and it doesn't really end with a satisfying climax. Marvel movies do a consistently good job of combining fun with decent writing -- and audiences notice that, which makes me optimistic! But compared to that, James Cameron's approach to screenplays feels downright cynical. e.g. Dr Nova and General Whatshisname from Avatar are more cartoonishly evil than most Disney villains. I'm sure he's smarter than Michael Bay, but seems to have lost interest in creating smart stories.
I'd like to stay optimistic...
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I'd take the Avatar general in a heartbeat over Nova, much as I hate to say it. At least he had an understandable goal. At best, Nova's doing the grown-up equivalent of pulling wings off flies. At worst, he's trying to kill people who might threaten his immortality or something; and I say worst because, while that's hypothetically understandable, his chosen methods are so blindingly stupid it's a shock he's made it this far.
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wish I could explain him, but he's the one character who's remade as a complete 180 from the original. he's supposed to be like if Heath Ledger's Joker had the skills of Dr. Frankenstein. he'd be sewing the wings back onto the fly, along with some chainsaws for good measure, without caring about the repercussions. though his motives are a mystery, he's not a shadowy manipulator; he'd prefer to see what people do with free will and too much power.
one unfortunate side effect of movie-Nova is that he completely takes away Vector's agency, yech.