are you craving for a good movie today?

The film we are going to talk about this time is the newly released Sci-Fi movie

Alita: Battle Angel

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Alita: Battle Angel is adapted from a famous Japanese manga series GUNNM in the 90s

The story took place hundreds of years from now, in a time when people on earth mostly lived in two places:

The floating city of Zalem, which was equipped with advanced technologies and held most of the available resources

And right beneath it was the Iron City that lives on scraps of Zalem

One day a doctor named Ido found a severely damaged but still alive cyborg girl in the scrap yard

and decided to take her back to his clinic for repairs. He gave her a brand new body and named her Alita

After waking up, Alita seemed to have lost all memories of her past completely

The only thing that remained was her curiosity to the world around her

The story unfolds as Alita attempts to retrieve her memories and unlock the secrets to her past

The movie is filled with many astonishing elements

Apart from the huge and comprehensive universe that it's in

the legendary filmmaker James Cameron, who is also the producer of the film

employed a number of latest technologies, and the result is a movie

that is packed with jaw-dropping visual effects

Although the story was written some thirty years ago

we can still feel the power of its vision and creativity, and the effects it has on the Sci-Fi world

As many scenes in the movie reminded us of some popular Sci-Fi movies released in recent years

For example, Real Steel has scenes similar to how Alita was found in the Scrap Yard

and how cyborgs are fighting with various weapons and different fighting skills

How Alita has to participate in the Motorball games

in order to enter Zalem reminded us of the Hunger Games

Elysium has a similar setting, which the world is divided into two

Ghost in the Shell is also about a cyborg trying to recover her memories

All of these are proofs of just how visionary and groundbreaking the story was

So in today's episode we'd like to try something a little bit different

First we'll introduce the world of Alita

and then we will compare the differences between the original manga series and the film

And at last, we will reveal the lessons that this film has taught us

A World Beyond Imagination

At the start of the movie we can see a colossal high-tech city floating in the sky

And right underneath it is an obviously poorer and more traditional-looking city that almost looks like a slum

Due to the loss of her memories, Alita was brimming with curiosity to everything around her

Through her eyes we get to know this peculiar world of the future

300 years prior to the film's timeline

Earth was caught up in a devastating war with the United Republic of Mars, or URM

Though Earth managed to defend the attacks from URM

all floating cities besides Zalem were fallen

damaging most of Earth's civilizations and technologies in the process

The entire movie took place in the Iron City that sits under Zalem

which all citizens' lives were dependent on

Apart from collecting scraps coming from Zalem as their resources

Iron City was obligated to send crops and refined resources back up

People from below were forbidden to go to the upper world

but this policy provoked a relentless longing among many citizens in the Iron City to leave and go live up in the sky

The institution responsible for managing the Iron City was called the Factory

Besides delivering goods to Zalem, it also governed a contingent of mercenaries called the Hunter-Warriors

Their job was to hunt the outlaws and in return were paid with bounty credits

The Factory was run by a man named Vector

who not only took care of the operation of the Factory

but also served as the unofficial host of the most popular game in the city – the Motorball

Motorball was a highly dangerous sport that combined speed skating and gladiator combat skills

With the hidden agenda of alluring the most daring players

they claimed that the ultimate champion would be granted a ticket to Zalem

The scarcity of resources had created a huge demand for weapons and parts

that were needed by hunter-warriors and Motorball players alike

That demand gave birth to a gang of scavengers who targeted cyborgs and humans

They would attack them, dismember them, and sell their organs and parts for credits

In this dog-eat-dog world, everyone must find a way to survive

Through interacting with these different groups of people, Alita slowly found her place

Manga vs. Film Spoilers ahead. Viewer discretion is advised

As an adaptation to a classic manga series

I'm sure many of you want to know the differences between the film and the original work

So we'll spend the next few minutes discussing a few major differences

We think the biggest change lies in

how some of the main characters are depicted and are shown with more humanity

For starters, in the manga, Dr. Ido didn't have a wife and a daughter

Alita's name was from the cat that Ido owned but died a month earlier

However, in the film Ido not only had a wife who served as a doctor with him

he also had a daughter who was tormented by illness

In the manga, Ido didn't become a hunter-warrior solely for the bounty money

he also had a secret addiction to the thrill of killing

However, in the film his motives were changed to redemption

as he wanted to prevent future tragedies by eliminating criminals

In the manga, the character Hugo appeared later and had a delayed impact on Alita

But in the movie Hugo was introduced much earlier

and served the important role of connecting Alita to the world

Also in the manga, Alita's affection towards Hugo was unilateral

but in the movie they were shown to be attracted to each other at first site

which adds a hint of romance to this action-packed Science Fiction movie

Despite the changes, the film still managed to keep many classic scenes that pay tribute to the manga

For example, the scene where Alita jabbed her hand into Grewishka's eye

and the part where Alita feigned Hugo's death

these are all scenes that sure will excite fans of the original work

Alita's Journey

The framework of the story may have been established three decades ago

the author's visions still speak volumes today

Though the concept of a cyborg with a human brain

equipped with a mechanic body was not an original concept

but GUNNM is indeed one of the vanguards of this genre

The idea of Alita's being able to change her body parts

not only satisfies sci-fi junkies such as myself

but also has a more profound insinuation

When Ido found Alita, he looked at her from a doctor's standpoint

sparing no effort putting her back together and gave her a new body

As the story unfurled, we learned that Alita's new body was actually meant for Ido's late daughter

When Ido brought Alita back to life, he offered not only his daughter's body

but also her name, and he had treated her as his own daughter ever since

While doing research on Alita's technologies, Ido discovered her secret

Alita was actually a solider equipped with the most advanced technology and weaponry

fighting for the invading URM three hundred years ago

During the battle she was severely damaged and went into hibernation, losing her memories in the process.

Since Ido was already seeing Alita as his daughter

he hoped that she could get rid of her past and live a stable and undisturbed life

That's why he was reluctant to show support as she attempted to retrieve her memories

Later when Alita found the combat body left by the URM

Ido refused to connect Alita to the new body

And said to Alita: You've been given a chance to start over with a clean slate

How many of us get that chance?

But Alita's heart that clung to the truth was unstoppable, so she decided to find the answer on her own

Seeing Alita risking her life to find out who she was

Ido had an epiphany

Though what he did was for his daughter's sake, but she was the master of her own life

and he had no right to stop her from living it

so Ido changed his mind and connected Alita to the URM body

Watching the reborn Alita, Ido offered his words of wisdom to her

The body is just a shell, It's not bad or good. That part's up to you

It's not hard for us to relate to Ido's feelings

for this is something that many parents have to learn to deal with

Now let's turn our focus back to Alita

We've learned from interviews with the production crew

that the reason they made Alita's eyes deliberately bigger

partly was to stay true to her image in the manga

but more because since eyes are the window to the soul

and through bigger eyes we can see Alita's vibrant soul more easily

It's a general perception that bigger eyes represent innocence and loveliness

Alita's agile eyes not only show more emotions

they also create a stark contrast to the toughness in her when she fights

and totally lives up to her nickname Battle Angel

However, seeing a girl with the face of an angel but fights like a killer

we could already foresee all the conflicts and struggles she's destined to experience in her life

The moment Alita opened her eye; the curiosity about the world took the better part of her

Whether it was her reflection in the mirror, the sweetness of oranges

or the excitement that Motorball games bring, she wanted to try everything and to be part of everything

In her restless mind, her long forgotten past was like a cloak of thick mist

that clouded her eyes that yearned to see the world clearly

Whenever Alita fought, during those fractions of life and death

her past memories would strike her without warning

And what came along with these memories were the combat training she received

and her acute instinct for battle

After regaining all of her memories

she recalled that she was indeed one of URM's soldiers who fought on Earth 300 years ago

Her order was to take down Zalem And defeat Nova, the mastermind who was controlling everything behind the scenes

Despite knowing her original mission, Alita was not confined to it

She chose to follow her heart and wished to live a life with Hugo in Zalem

To realize this wish she was even willing to sell her priceless heart

Hugo's death had left Alita devastated for some time

but soon she was back on her feet and kept going to Zalem as her ultimate goal

Alita's choice this time was not made to accomplish a mission given 300 years ago

or to fulfill Hugo's expectations

but because this was her decision and the path she chose

Though Alita lived her life hard for herself, that doesn't mean she was ungrateful

On the contrary, she knew exactly the only way to console those

who had encouraged her in the past and helped her grow

was to find her own path

She needed to use her achievements as a proof to show those who stayed beside her

that all their efforts were not made in vain

Her mentality and actions accentuate the fact that Alita lives her life to its fullest

She is capable of giving all she has for those she cares, but she is also capable of living for own sake

She is the girl who lives up to her title: Battle Angel

Alita's decision also echoed with Dr. Ido's realization

This film is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining movies of our generation

Apart from the visual effects and the storyline

the adorable yet merciless Alita blows our minds

with sequence after sequence of enthralling actions and fights

Whether you are in for an intense sci-fi punk movie

or is also searching for the meaning of life like Alita

this film has something unique to offer

It's clear that the film has left a big portion of the story untold

and we just can't wait to see what will happen to Alita next

and everything that are still hidden inside Zalem

Alita: Battle Angel definitely one of this year's must-see movies

and we highly recommend it to you