Alita: Battle Angel has gotten some fairly ‘alright’ reviews but it’s safe to say that that’s probably going to be the consensus for the film… from critics at least. Based on the Gunnm manga series by Yukito Kishiro, the film is directed by Robert Rodriguez and stars Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson.
Although many consider this to be just a popcorn flick, it looks like the Alita author/creator Kishiro considers it to be more than that. He doesn’t only consider it to be a solid adaptation but considers it to be the greatest movie in the world, according to reports by Japanese media (via Crunchyroll). Now that’s one heck of a bold statement.
The author of the manga Gunnm is very much satisfied with the adaptation, having seen the film five times. At the Japan screening of the film, he said on stage:
“Thanks to the great staff, it has become the greatest movie in the world. Every time I see, I can find something new. The composition is amazing. All scenes are special and there are no unneeded ones. It is so exciting that I can’t believe that I created the original story.”
I don’t know if Kishiro watches a lot of films but it’s a pretty big deal when the creator of the source considers your adaptation to be great. It seems that the reason he praises Alita: Battle Angel so much was due to how the film managed to evoke the core part of the manga. As reported, he said:
“The core part of the manga was brilliantly passed on to the film. Including the characters’ emotion and raison d’etre, they were perfectly reflected in the film, so I was very happy.”
Well, as long as you’re happy Kishiro… I guess. Perhaps the film will be regarded as highly in time but for now, ‘alright’ seems to be the general consensus among critics. The film has a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes but it looks like audiences dug the film much more with the Audience Score being 93%. We might be seeing a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel in the future so the next one could bring the film critics to Kishiro’s side.
Source: Crunchyroll , Rotten Tomatoes
